THE  ANTI-INFIDEL   LIBRARY. 

THIRD  MILLION, 


FIVE-CENT  SERIES,  No.  1,  OCT.,  '91. 

PRICE   FIVE  CTS. 


BOSTON: 

H.   L   HASTINGS,  PUBLISHER,  49  CORNHILL 


ENTERED    AT   THE    POST   OrFICF,   BOSTON,    MASS.,    U.S.A.,    AS   SECOND-CLASS    MATTER. 
0.     2UIL.   20*.  QOARTtKLY  :    TWELVE   SUCCESSIVE    NUMBERS,    11.00. 


H.  L.  HASTINGS'   ANTI-INFIDEL  WOEK. 


Infidelity  is  propagated  by  lectures,  newspapers,  and  cheap  pamphlets 
which  are  scattered  far  and  wide,  both  in  Christendom  and  in  heathen  lands. 

The  same  methods  must  l>c  used  to  resist  infidelity.  This  we  are  en- 
deavoring to  do.  About  forty  cheap  pamphlets  have  been  issued  as  Tin. 
AxTi-IxKinri,  LII;K.\I:Y,  at  5  and  10 cents  each  and  upwards.  Millions  of 
these  have  been  printed.  Of  a  single  lecture,  The  Jnfjiiration  oj'ilit  l-i<!,i<  . 
over  two  million  copies,  using  40  tons  of  paper  have  been  issued.  Christian 
people,  generally,  unite  in  their  praise.  Who  will  help  to  circulate  them  '.' 
fen  thousand  dollars  are  needed  to  set  a  million  of  them  living  through 
the  earth.  AVho  will  help? 

TESTIMONIAL. 

The  under  signed,  being  personally  aci/itnintnl  with  the  Aitli-fnjidtl  Lr-ct- 
ures  and  Publications  of  Mr.  II.  L.  Hafihii/s,  «/  Jji'.--/nn,  .l/r/.<.--..  mid  bv- 
lii  rinij  that  tin  ir  iride  circulation  if  dfinruidtd  by  the  increase  of  Ski-pli- 
cifin  nwl  skeptical  literature,  and-  trill  tmd  t<>  greatly  bint-jit  not 
Skeptics,  but  also  (til  Christians  and  churches  which  ln>i<i  tin  >-ii>niii«ii  failh 
of  Chrifl,  'in  In  i-iinj  mutt  hi-nriihi  I'm/nin-nd  //('.<  inn-k  to  the  coHfidttict  .  i  11- 
couragemeni,  and  support  of  all  Christians  and  Philanthropists. 

SL'lll-il  by    Lo];l>     KlXXAIHK,     L'lIMI      KAilSTocK,     SIR    ARTHIK      I'.I.  Ac  K  U  ( K  >] >. 

.1:  WTLLIAMB/EDMUUD  J.  KKNNKHY.  T.  \v.  STOUQHTOK,  SAJIUEL SMITH. 
M.  1'.,  T.  A.  DKXXY,  S.  UIIIXKY  .SIMCIM-AKII,  ,1<>nx  \VJLKIXSOX,  IIIA  J). 
S  \XKF.Y.  ,  It  isKi'ii  <.N)»K.  DoxAi.D  M/.'i  H  i  :s.  >\.  <  'A  x<  >.v  Wn,r.i:i:  i  •«  me  i:.  Ki'WAi.i' 
WHITE,  H.  W.  WEBB  I'Kri.m-:.  DK.  IIAHNAIIIMI.  l(i:v.  I)i;s.  IIUXAI.O  FKASKI:, 
K.  \V.  RULI/INGKR,  Aixiu-II  SAl'llllt,  .JnsKi-H  I'.M.'KKi:.  A.  II.  IM.r.Ml:,  .!.  1>. 
WiTHKiiu  .  I>ANII:I,  I)ni:i'iii:sTi';i:.  K.  V.  I'.i  in:,  .IOSKI-II  CIMMINCS.  <;.  ]•'.  I'KX- 
TBCQ8T,  A.  .'.  (ioi.-i'iiv,  L.  I',.  |;ATI.S,  A.  'I'.  )'ii.i;sox,  J.  11.  I>  \ I.KS,  ('•  1:0.  J. 

JIINOKNS,  \V.    T.    JlcmllK,    I  I.  1'.  ( ;  1  I  I  »1;  I',   AXI>   OIHl.KS. 

THE    ANTI-INFIDEL    LIBRARY. 

"  I  do  not  know  anything  in  the  Knvlisli  tongue  that   meets  Hie  rurrent 

skepticism  as  «•«  II  as  tiles.-."     .1.  T.  riKltsn  V.  It.  D. ,  P/iihulelpfn<i,  P«tm: 
FIVE   CENT  SERIES. 


The  Inspiration  of  the  Bible. 

A  f/'ccml  flitioit  of  Him,  illustrnt.  ,1.  in- 
titled  "  Will  the  Old  Book  Starfd  ?  " 
ami  also  nl  till  tlic  (Ire-cent  numben  nnn.  .1 
tli'ltiw.  may  lir  li:ul  lur  ili-tnlmt  1 
CU.  poriloz.:  »2.(»ipcr  1C(I  :  »|;>I»I  PIT  II»KI. 
paid  in  fiut.il 
Stati-Siitnl  Cannila.  Cloth  cilitii.n 

Fourteen  Nuts  for  Skeptics  to  Craok. 

Romark.s   on  thi-  Mistakes  of  Moses. 
Friendly  Hints  to  Candid  Inquirers. 
Who  made  the  New  Testament? 
Israel's  Messiah. 
Israel's  Greatest  Prophet. 


The    Witness  of  Skeptics. 
A   Warning  Word  011  Infidelity. 
Testimony  of  Christ  to  (>; 
Number  in   Nature. 
Spiritual  Manifestations. 

Workings. 
Familiar    Spirits. 
The  Mystery  Solved. 
The  Depths  of  Satan. 
Is  the  Bible  a  True  Book  ? 
Trying    tin-  Spirit*. 
Reaching  the  Miu 

niMiii'jincl  Spiritualism. 
hriHtianity. 


LARGER    SERIES. 


•i  >i. 

Cor 


t  in  History  and  I'roph.,  1  .'>  i-ts. 

Biola  Triumphant,  26  cts. 

Test.,16ct«. 

Hiding.  ISctn. 

•  tion,  16  cts. 

Origin  of  Llfo,  lOcta. 


15  cts. 
15  cts. 
BctS, 

Errors  of  Evolution,  I  Cloth),  $1.OO*. 
Testimony  OfHlatory,  ci.,nv.  3fi  cts. 
Credibility  Chris.  Relig.,  .'!.>;  25  cts. 


Darwinism, 

Atheism  and  Arithmetic, 
The   Wonderful  Law. 
The  Separated  Nation. 


H.    L.    HASTINGS,     SCRIPTURAL     TRACT      REPOSITORY. 

17    ('I'KMiM.l.,         I       I.I«M«>N:    10    1' \TI  i.'Mis'i  1:1:    liow, 
11.  I.    II  \ST1NOR.  |  ,M  \l;>ll.\l.l.    i:l:i)S.,  A. 


,  question  as  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Hible 
is  not  a  question  raised  by  me.     It  is  a 
question  that  is  already  tip  for  discus- 
sion through  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land.      What  arc  we  ti>  do  with  the 
Bible?    How  arc  we  to  regard   it?     N  it 
the  best  book  in  the  world,  or  the  worst?    Is  it  a 
true  book,  or  is  it  a  false  book?     Is  it  God's  book, 
or  is  it  man's  book? 

We  find  men  on  all  sides  of  the  question.     There 
arc  persons  who  tell  us  this  book  is  a  irood  book  — 

*  iH'livcrril   Ix-fore   the;   Sixteenth    Annual  Convention  of  tliu  Massachusetts 
Young  Men's  Chriatiau  AtMociutions,  at  Spencer,  Maws.,  U.S.A. 


4  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

but  then,  there  are  others  just  as  good.  The  Bible  is  inspired, 
and  so  was  Plato  inspired,  so  was  Socrates,  and  so  is  the  almanac 
inspired ;  in  fact,  everything  is  inspired — the  book  of  Mormon, 
the  Koran  of  Mahomet,  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos  and  the 
Chinese; — they  have  their  Bibles,  you  have  yours;  all  are  good, 
and  one  is  about  as  good  as  the  other.  Shakespeare  was  inspired, 
Milton  was  inspired,  Thomas  Paine  was  inspired,  and  everything 
and  everybody  is  inspired. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to1  waste  time  on  false  issues.  When  I 
open  Shakespeare's  plays  I  do  not  read  at  the  commencement, 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  of  hosts  ; "  when  I  turn  to  Plato's 
writings  I  do  not  read,  "  Hear  ye  the  word  of  the  Lord  ;  "  when  I 
peruse  the  almanac  I  do  not  read,  "  The  word  of  the  Lord  came 
unto  me."  Hence,  you  see  that  this  book  must  be  judged  by  a 
standard  different  from  all  other  books.  Over  and  over  again  this 
book  says,  "  Hear  ye  the  word  of  the  Lord."  Now,  the  message 
is  the  word  of  the  Lord,  or  it  is  a  lie.  It  is  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
as  it  professes  to  be,  or  it  is  a  cheat,  a  swindle,  a  humbug,  a 
fraud. 

To  illustrate  :  A  man  tells  me  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  a 
good  man  ;  but  then,  there  were  other  men  just  as  good.  He  was 
a  spiritual  medium;  but  there  are  other  mediums  equally 
powerful  in  these  days.  To  be  sure,  I  do  not  remember  any 
spiritual  medium  giving  a  public  dinner,  for  nothing,  to  five 
thousand  hungry  people !  You  may  have  heard  of  sucli  a 
"  manifestation,"  but  it  has  not  fallen  under  my  notice.  I  have 
not  heard  of  a  spiritual  medium  hushing  the  winds  or  calming  a 
storm  at  sea.  I  have  heard  of  dancing  tables  and  similar 
operations.  I  prefer  to  have  my  tables  stand  still! 

But  while  you  say,  "  Christ  was  simply  one  of  many  remark- 
able men,"  He  says,  "  I  came  forth  from  the  Father,  and  am  como 
into  the  world  again,  J  leave  the  world,  and  go  to  the  Father." 
He  says,  "O  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self, 
with  the  glory  which  /  had  with  thce  before  the  world  was." 
Now  do  you  say  lie  was  a  good  man,  and  yet  he  told  lies?  What 
is  your  idea  of  a  good  man?  I  do  not  believe  that  a  good  man 
lies ;  and  I  do  not  believe  that  a  man  who  lies  is  a  good  man. 
IVi  haps  you  do,  but  if  HO,  you  were  brought  up  in  a  different  way 
froi:'  that  in  which  my  father  brought  me  up.  So  I  do  not  believe 
that  a  book  packed  with  lies  from  one  end  to  the  other  is  a  good 
book  ;  and  I  do  not  want  anyone  to  come  ami  tell  me  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  a  good  man,  and  the  Bible  is  a  good  book,  but  neither 
of  them  tell  the  truth.  I  join  issue  there.  This  book  is  what  it 


THE  INSPIRATION   OF  THE  BIBLE.  6 

professes  to  be,  or  it  is  a  swindle  ;  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  what  he 
professed  to  be,  or  he  was  an  impostor. 

Suppose  a  man  comes  to  town  and  represents  himself  as  the  son 
of  a  British  nobleman.  He  is  well  dressed,  has  plenty  of  money, 
turns  the  heads  of  half  the  young  ladies  in  the  town,  and  makes 
Iiimself  at  home  generally  ;  but  after  a  while  they  find  out  that  he 
is  the  son  of  "Old  Jinkins,  the  blacksmith,"  down  in  the  next 
town.  Now  I  do  not  want  you  to  tell  me  how  prettily  he  behaves, 
what  fine  broadcloth  he  wears,  or  what  a  perfect  gentleman  he  is 
in  all  his  deportment.  The  fact  is,  he  is  a  liar,  a  fraud,  and  a 
scamp.  He  has  come  ui.der  false  colours,  and  palmed  himself  "if 
on  the  community  under  false  pretences  ;  and  the  more  good  things 
you  say  about  him  the  less  I  think  of  him  ;  because,  if  he  is  such 
a  well -educated  gentleman,  he  knows  better  than  to  be  going 
around  its  a  fraud,  and  deceiving  the  people.  So  we  must  accept 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  his  claims  entirely,  or  else  we  must  reject 
the  whole  gospel  as  an  imposture,  and  as  the  grandest,  most 
stupendous  fraud  the  world  has  ever  known. 

Now,  do  not  be  fooled  by  this  soft  talk  about  the  Bible  being  "  a 
good  book,"  and  yet  just  like  many  other  good  books.  There  is 
not  another  like  it  in  the  world.  Let  us  look  at  some  of  its 
peculiarities  : — 

Here  is  one  :  The  Bible  is  a  book  which  has  been  refuted, 
demolished,  overthrown,  and  exploded  more  times  than  any  other 
Imok  you  ever  heard  of.  Every  little  while  somelxwly  starts  up 
and  upsets  this  book  ;  and  it  is  like  upsetting  a  solid  oul>e  of 
granite.  It  is  just  as  big  one  way  as  the  other;  and  when  \  on 
have  upset  it,  it  is  right  side  up,  and  when  you  overturn  it  again 
it  is  right  side  up  still.  Every  little  while  somebody  blows 
up  the  Bible  ;  but  when  it  comes  down  it  always  lights  on 
ks  feet,  and  runs  faster  than  ever  through  the  world.  They 
overthrew  the  Bible  a  century  ago,  in  Voltaire's  time-^-entirely 
demolished  the  whole  thing.  In  l»-ss  than  a  hundred  years,  said 
Voltaire,  Christianity  will  have  been  swept  from  existence,  and 
will  have  passed  into  history.  Infidelity  ran  riot  through  France, 
red-handed  and  impious.  A  century  has  passed  away.  Voltaire 
lias  "  passed  into  history,"  and  not  very  respectable  history  either  ; 
but  his  old  printing-press,  it  is  said,  has  since  been  used  to  print 
the  Word  of  God  ;  and  the  very  house  wlier0  he  lived  is  packed 
with  Bibles,  a  depot  for  the  Geneva  Bible  Society.  Thomas  Paine 
demolished  the  Bible,  and  finished  it  off  finally  :  but  after  he  had 

•  Some  interesting  facts  on  this  Bul.ject  may  be  seen  in  a  lecture  by  H.  L. 
Hastings,  entitled  I»  the  Bible  a  True  Book  t 


6  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THK  BIBLE. 

crawled  despairingly  into  a  drunkard's  grave  in  1809,*  the  book 
took  such  a  leap  that  since  that  time  more  than  twenty  times  as 
many  Bibles  have  been  made  and  scattered  through  the  world  as 
ever  were  made  before,  since  the  creation  of  man.  Up  to  the  year 
1800,  from  four  to  six  million  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  in  some 
thirty  different  languages,  comprised  all  that  had  been  produced 
since  the  world  began.  Eighty  years  later,  in  1880,  the  statistics 
of  eighty  different  Bible  societies  which  are  now  in  existence,  with 
their  unnumbered  agencies  and  auxiliaries,  report  more  than 
165,000,000  Bibles,  Testaments,  and  portions  of  Scripture,  with 
two  hundred  and  six  new  translations,  distributed  by  Bible 
societies  alone  since  1804  ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  unknown  millions 
of  Bibles  and  Testaments  which  have  been  issued  and  circulated 
by  private  publishers  throughout  the  world.  For  a  book  that  has 
been  exploded  so  many  times,  this  book  still  shows  signs  of 
considerable  life. 

I  have  heard  of  a  man  travelling  around  the  country  exploding 
this  book,  and  showing  up  "  the  mistakes  of  Moses,"  at  about  two 
hundred  dollars  a  night.  It  is  easy  wurk  to  abuse  Moses  at  two 
hundred  dollars  a  night-  especially  as  Moses  is  dead,  and  cannot 
talk  back.  It  would  r^  ~-":>rth  something  after  hearing  the  infidel 
on  "the  mistakes  of  Moses,"  to  hear  Moses  on  "  the  mistakes  of 
the  infidel,  "f  When  Moses  could  talk  back,  he  was  rather  a 
difficult  rnan  to  deal  with.  Pharaoh  tried  it,  and  met  with  poor 
success.  Jannes  and  Jambrcs  withstood  Moses,  and  it  is  said 
found  a  grave  in  the  Red  Sea.  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram  tried 
it,  and  went  down  so  deep  that  they  have  not  yet  got  back.  But 

*  There  lies  before  me  a  letter  written  to  me  by  Mrs.  Mary  Benjamin,  who 
nt  the  age  of  eleven  years  was  an  eye-ioitncss  to  the  death-bed  agonies  of 
Thomas  Paine.  She  writes  from  Williamsport,  Pa.,  April  25, 187G : — 

"  I  was  invited  by  a  distant  connection  ...  to  go  and  see  T.  Paine  on  his 
death-bed.  .  .  .  The  scene  to  mo  was  appalling,  and  I  wished  to  leave  at 
once.  I  remember  him  as  he  lay,  his  head  near  and  close  to  the  door  we 
entered,  his  glaring,  rolling  eyes,  uttering  imprecations,  apparently  in  agony 
of  body  and  mind,  his  screams  could  be  heard  at  a  great  distance.  As  I 
shrank  back  they  said  (there  were  many  there)  he  called  on  Jesus  Christ  for 
mercy,  and  lie:  *•  blasphemed." 

This  independent  witness  simply  confirms  the  testimony  of  other  respect- 
able persons,  whose  veracity  is  only  impeached  by  infidels  who  were  not 
present,,  and  who  know  nothing  of  the  facts,  but  who,  -with  characteristic 
candour,  expect  us  to  believe  their  testimony  concerning  events  which 
occurred  years  before  they  were  born  1 

t  K»-e  three  pamphlets  by  H.  L.  Hastings,  entitled,  Remarks  on  the  'Mis- 
takeH  of  Moses,'  The  Wonderful  Law,  The  Separated  Nation,  and  lsrael'6 
Greatest  Prophet ;  to  be  bad  of  the  publishers  of  this  lecture. 


THE   INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.  7 

now  Moses  is  dead,  and  it  is  easy  to  abuse  him.  It  does  not 
take  a  very  brave  beast  to  kick  a  dead  Hon.* 

But,  after  all,  this  book  seems  to  stand  abuse,  and  thrive  upon 
refutation.  A  few  months  ago  some  learned  men,  after  working 
for  a  number  of  years  on  the  revision  of  the  New  Testament, 
finished  their  work.  Having  inserted  a  few  modern  words  instead 
of  others  which  had  become  obsolete,  made  some  slight  corrections 
of  errors  in  translation,  and  rectified  from  ancient  manuscript  - 
some  little  errors  that  had  been  made  by  copyists  in  transcribing 
the  New  Testament,t  at  last  the  book  was  announced  .as  ready  to 
l»e  issued  on  a  certain  day.  What  was  the  result?  Why,  men 
offered  five  hundred  dollars  to  get  a  copy  of  that  book  a  little  in 
advance  of  its  publication  ;  and  the  morning  it  was  published,  the 
streets  of  New  York  were  blockaded  with  express  waggons  haeUed 
up  ami  waiting  for  copies  of  a  book  which  had  been  refuted,  ex- 
ploded, and  dead  ami  buried  for  so  many  years.  Millions  of  copier 
were  sold  as  fast  as  they  could  be  delivered.  They  telegraphed 
that  book,  from  the  first  of  Matthew  to  the  end  of  Romans  from  New 
York  to  Chicago,  about  118,000  words— the  longest  message  ever 
wired — for  the  sake  of  getting  it  there  twenty -/our  hours  sooner 
than  steam  could  carry  it,  to  print  in  the  Sunday  newspapers. 

A  dead  book,  is  it?  They  would  not  pay  for  telegraphing  the 
greatest  infidel  speech  ever  delivered  in  this  country,  from  here  tc 
Tophet.  This  old  book  seems  to  show  some  signs  of  life  yet.  Tt 
is  like  Aaron's  rod  that  budded  an<'  blossomed,  and  it  is  being 
scattered  all  over  the  world. 

This  book  outlives  its  foes.  If  you  could  gather  all  the  l»ooks 
written  against  it,  you  could  build  a  pyramid  higher  than  the 
loftiest  spire.  Now  and  then  a  man  goes  to  work  to  refute  lh« 
I'ihle  :  and  every  time  it  is  done  it  has  to  be  done  over  again  Ihr 
next  day  or  the  n<'\t  year.  And  then,  after  its  enemies  have  done 

•  It  would  be  interesting  to  hear  a  military  leader  and  legislator,  like 
"Moses  the  man  of  God,"  who,  after  he  was  eighty  years  old,  commanded 
for  forty  years  :ui  army  of  six  hundred  thousand  men,  emancipating,  orcau 
izing,  and  giving  laws  to  a  nation  which  has  maintained  its  existence  f"t 
more  than  thirty  stormy  centuries,  give  his  candid  opinion  concerning  "  the 
mistakes  "  of  a  "  Colonel "  of  cavalry,  whose  military  career  is  said  to  have 
included  one  single  engagement,  in  which  "  he  was  chased  into  a  hog-yard 
and  surrendered  to  a  boy  of  sixteen ;"  after  which,  as  soon  as  exchanged,  he 
heroically  resigned  his  commission  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  subsequently 
turning  his  attention  to  managing  swindling  whiskey  rings,  disciis-ine 
theology,  defending  scoundrels,  blaspheming  (!od,  and  criticising  dead  men 
who  cannot  answer  him. 

t  For  an  account  of  these  errors  and  their  extent  and  importance,  see  The 
Corruption*  r>f  the  New  Testament,  by  H.  L.  Hastings. 


8  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

..neii  worst,  some  of  its  professed  friends  torture  and  twist  an<i 
mystify  and  misrepresent  it.  Surely  it  is  no  fool  of  a  book  if  it 
iives  through  all  that.  Infidels  have  been  at  work  nearly  eighteen 
hundred  years,  firing  away  at  it,  and  making  about  as  much 
impression  on  it  as  you  would  shooting  boiled  peas  at  Gibraltar. 

The  fact  is,  this  book  has  come  into  the  world,  and  it  seems  to 
have  come  to  stay.  It  is  in  the  world,  and  I  do  not  know  how  you 
are  to  get  it  out.  One  hundred  years  ago  you  might  have  found 
that  book  in  twenty  or  thirty  translations  ;  but  now  you  can  find 
it  in  between  two  and  three  hundred  different  versions,  most 
of  which  have  been  made  in  this  last  progressive,  intellectual, 
nineteenth  century.  All  over  the  globe  it  goes  ;  touch  any  shore 
and  you  will  lind  that  book  there  before  you. 

And  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  most  of  our  sceptical  friends 
contrive  to  keep  very  close  to  where  its  shadow  falls.  It  does  not 
take  a  great  while  to  get  out  of  sight  of  the  Bible.  You  can  go,  in 
a  very  few  days,  where  there  are  no  churches,  Sunday  schools. 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  preachers,  deacons,  or 
anything  else  of  the  kind — you  can  "go  West."  There  is  little 
difficulty  in  getting  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Bible.  Your  scalp 
might  not  be  very  safe,  but  you  can  easily  get  away  from  the 
reach  of  the  Bible.  But  the  infidel,  while  finding  fault  with  the 
l>ihle,  takes  good  care  to  stay  where  the  Bible  is.  Why  is  tins'; 

There  was  once  a  vessel  wrecked  on  one  of  the  South  Sea 
Islands.  There  was  on  board  a  sailor  who  had  been  there  before, 
and  who  knew  that  the  people  were  cannibals.  And  when  the 
ship  was  wrecked,  and  they  were  cast  away  on  this  shore,  they 
knew  there  was  no  hope  for  them,  for  they  saw  no  way  to  escape. 
Tin-,  sailor,  however,  climbed  up  on  a  hill  top  to  reconnoitre 
a  little.  1'resontly  his  shipmates  saw  him  swinging  his  arms  in 
great  excitement,  and  inquired  what  was  the  matter.  He  had 
^eeri  just  over  the  hill  the  steeple  of  a  meeting-house  !  That  was 
what  took  all  the  fear  of  trouble  out  of  his  soul.  He  knew  that 
church  spire  made  his  neck  safe  on  that  cannibal  island. 

Now  infidels  know  that  fact  just  as  well  as  he  did.  Years  ago, 
a  young  infidel  was  travelling  in  the  West  with  his  uncle,  a 
banker,  and  they  were  not  a  little  anxious  for  their  safety  when 
they  were  forced  to  stop  for  a  night  in  a  rough  wayside  cabin. 
I'liere  were  two  rooms  in  the  house  ;  and  when  they  retired  for  the 
night  they  agreed  that  the  young  man  should  sit  with  his  pistols, 
and  watch  until  midnight,  and  then  awaken  his  uncle,  who  should 
watch  until  morning.  Presently  they  peeped  through  the  crack, 
and  saw  their  host,  a  rough-looking  old  man,  in  his  bear-skin  suit. 


THE  INSPIRATION   OF  THE  BIBLE.  P 

reach  up  and  take  down  a  book — a  Bible ;  and  after  reading  it 
awhile,  he  knelt  and  began  to  pray  ;  and  then  the  young  intidel 
l>egan  to  pull  oil  his  coat  and  get  ready  for  bed.  The  uncle  .said, 
"  I  thought  you  were  going  to  sit  up  and  watch."  But  the  young 
man  knew  there  was  no  need  of  sitting  up,  pistol  in  hand,  to 
watch  all  night  long  in  a  cabin  that  was  hallowed  by  the  word  of 
God,  and  consecrated  by  the  voice  of  prayer.  Would  a  pack 
•  if  c.-inls,  a  rum-bottle,  or  a  copy  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  have  thus 
quieted  this  young  infidel's  fears  ?  (See  Illustration  on  Cover.) 

Kvery  one  knows  that  where  this  book  has  influence  it  makes 
tilings  safe.  Why  is  this?  If  it  were  a  bad  book,  we  should 
expect  to  limi  it  in  the  hands  of  the  worsi  men.  In  New  York 
there  was  once  a  kind  of  rogue's  museum — a  place  where  they  had 
all  kinds  of  skeleton-keys,  and  jemmies,  and  brass  knuckles,  and 
dirks,  and  pistols,  and  implements  of  mischief,  which  they  had 
taken  away  from  roughs  and  criminals.  Do  you  suppose  there 
was  a  single  New  Testament  in  the  whole  kit  ?  Why  not  ?  If  it 
were  a  bad  book  you  would  expect  a  man  to  have  a  revolver  in  one 
pocket,  and  a  New  Testament  tucked  away  in  another.  There 
was  a  row  the  other  night,  and  a  man  broke  his  wife's  head  with  a 
—Bible  ?  No  !  it  was  a  Bottle  !  Where  the  Bible  bears  sway,  the 
rows  and  quarrels  do  not  come. 

What  makes  this  t>ook  so  different  from  all  other  books? 
Whose,  hook  is  it?  Who  made  it?  Infidels  Iwave  the  strangest 
ideas  on  that  subject.  iTecollect  in  Marlboro',  Ala<s.,  I  read  in  a 
newspaper  an  article  written  by  an  infidel,  which  stated  that  the 
Council  of  Nice,  in  the  year  325,  compiled  the  New  Testament. 
They  had  a  lot  of  (Jospels  and  Kpistles,  genuine  and  spurious,  and 
no  one  could  distinguish  between  the  two;  so  they  put  them  all 
on  the  floor,  and  prayed  that  the  good  ones  might  get  up  on  the 
communion  table  and  the  bad  ones  stay  on  the  floor  ;  and  that 
was  the  way  that  the  present  New  Testament  was  compiled.  And 
that  is  the  kind  of  food  that  infidels  are  made  to  swallow  and 
cliLj'M  :  for  that  very  statement  can  be  found  in  various  infidel 
books  now  issued  by  infidel  publishers.  This  writer  said  that  this 
account  rested  on  the  authority  of  Papias,  an  early  Christian 
bishop.  I  replied,  in  a  lecture,  that  there  was  one  difficulty  about 
that  story — that  1'apias  was  dead  and  buried  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before  the  Council  of  Nice  was  held:  Init  a->  they  might 
have  got  the  news  from  "the  spirits"  that  might  l>e  no  -real 
objection  to  them.  The  man  HIM-  to  explain,  and  said  that  this 
was  not  the  right  I'apias  but  that  it  was  another  1'apias.  "an 
obscure  Christian  bishop  of  the  fourth  century."  I  told  him  I 


10  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

thought  he  was  obscure  ;  so  obscure  that  no  one  ever  heard  of  him 
before  or  since.  On  investigation  it  was  learned  that  a  German 
dominie,  named  John  Pappus,  preacher  in  Strasburg,  and  a  professor 
at  Minister,  who  died  in  1610,  discovered  this  story  in  an  old  Greek 
manuscript  entitled  "  Synodikon,"  which  was  written  by  some  old 
romancer  back  in  the  dark  ages,  about  the  year  900,  for  it  relates 
things  which  occurred  as  late  as  879,  over  five  hundred  years  after 
the  Council  of  Nice  was  dead  and  buried.  And  this  story,  written 
nobody  knows  when,  where,  or  by  whom,  has  been  swallowed, 
believed,  and  published  by  infidels  far  and  near,  as  an  account  of 
the  origin  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  the  men  who  believe  and 
peddle  such  fables  call  Christians  fools  for  believing  the  Bible. 

I  have  on  one  of  my  library  shelves,  between  twenty  and  thirty 
volumes,  containing  about  twelve  thousand  pages  of  the  writings 
of  different  Christian  authors  who  wrote  before  A.D.  325,  when 
the  Council  of  Nice  was  held.  Many  of  these  books  are  full  of 
Scripture.  Those  writers  had  the  same  books  which  we  have  ; 
they  quoted  the  same  passages  which  we  quote  ;  they  quoted  from 
the  same  Gospels  and  Epistles  from  which  we  quote. 

Origen,  who  wrote  a  hundred  years  before  the  Council  of  Nice, 
quotes  5,745  passages  from  all  the  books  in  the  New  Testament ; 
Tertullian,  A.D.  200,  makes  more  than  3,000  quotations  from  the 
New  Testament  books  ;  Clement,  A.D.  194,  quotes  380  passages  ; 
IrenaMis,  A.D.  178,  quotes  707  passages;  Polycarp,  who  was 
martyred  A.D.  165,  after  having  served  Christ  eighty-six  years,  in 
a  single  epistle  quoted  o(5  passages  ;  Justin  Martyr,  A.D.  140,  also 
quotes  from  the  New  Testament ;  to  say  nothing  of  heathen  and 
infidel  MTiters  like  Celsus,  A.D.  150,  and  Porphyry,  A.D.  304, 
who  referred  to  or  quoted  scores  of  the  very  passages  now  found  in 
the  Scriptures  which  we  have.  Indeed,  Lord  Uailes,  of  Scotland, 
having  searched  the  writings  of  the  Christian  Fathers  to  the  end  of 
the  third  century,  actually  found  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament, 
with  the  exception  of  less  than  a  dozen  verses,  scattered  through 
their  writings  which  are  still  extant ;  so  that,  if  at  the  time  of  the 
Council  of  Nice  every  copy  of  the  New  Testament  had  been 
annihilated,  the  book  could  have  been  reproduced  from  the 
writings  of  the  early  Christina  Fathers,  who  quoted  the  book  as 
we  quote  it,  and  who  believed  it  as  we  believe  it.  And  now  infidels 
talk  about  the  Council  of  N'iee  getting  up  the  New  Testament. 
\  <iii  might  as  well  talk  about  the  town  council  getting  up  the 
Revised  Statutes  of  UK;  slate  or  nation,  bec.-uise  Miry  happened  to 
say  they  ;iecepied  or  received  them.  The  Council  of  Nice  did 
nothing  of  the  kind.  The  books  of  the  New  Testament  were 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.  11 

received  from  the  apostles  who  wrote  them,  .and  were  carefullV 
preserved,  and  publicly  read  in  the  churches  of  Christ  long  before 
lli--  ( 'oiincil  of  Nice  was  held.* 

Says  Tertullian,  A.D.  '200,  "  If  you  are  willing  to  exercise  your 
curiosity  profitably  in  the  business  of  your  salvation,  visit  the 
ajiostolic  churches  ;  in  which  the  very  chairs  of  the  apostles  still 
preside  in  their  places  ;  in  which  their  very  nnthi-nlif  l<'tt>  rs  arc 
'/,  sounding  forth  the  voice  ami  representing  the  countenance 
of  every  one  of  them.  Is  Achaia  near  you  ?  You  have  Corinth. 
If  you  are  not  far  from  .Macedonia  you  have  1'liilippi  and 
Theasalonica  ;  if  yon  can  go  to  Asia  you  have  Ephesus,  but  if  you 
an-  near  to  Italy  you  have  Rome."f 

These  apostolic  churches  received  the  Gospels  at  tlie  hands  of 
the  men  who  wrote  them  ;  and  the  Epistles  were  written  and  signed 
by  men  whom  they  well  knew.  Paul  wrote,  "The  salutation  of 
me,  Paul,  by  mine,  own  hand,  which  is  the  tukc»  in  crrr//  epistle."^. 

Now,  what  did  these  writers  testify?  They  testified  things 
which  they  knew.  The  apostle  John  does  not  say,  "  That  which 
we  have  dreamed,  Imagined,  or  guessed  at,  that  thing  do  we 
declare  unto  you;"  but,  "That  which  was  from  the  beginning, 
which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes,  which  we 
have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have  handled,  of  Ihe  Word  of 
Life."  1  John  i.  1.  This  was  their  testimony.  They  testified  that 
they  saw  Christ  in  his  life  and  in  his  death  ;  that  they  saw  him  after 
his  resurrection,  and  felt  his  hands  and  feet,  and  saw  the  nail  prints 
and  the  spear-wound;  and  they  knew  these  things  and  te-tilied 
of  them,  and  they  preached  Christ,  who  had  died  and  risen  again. 

When  Lepanx,  a  member  of  the  French  Directory,  complained 
to  Talleyrand  that  his  new  religion,  "  Theophilanthropy,"  made 
little  headway  among  the  people,  the  shrewd  old  statesman  replied  : 

"  I  am  not  surprised  at  the  ditlicnlty  you  find  in  your  effort. 
It  is  no  easy  matter  to  introduce  a  new  religion,  lint  then*  is  one 
thing  I  would  advise  you  to  do,  and  then,  perhaps,  you  might 
succeed." — "What  is  it?  what  is  it?"  eagerly  a>ked  Lepau.v. 
— "  It  is  this,"  said  Talleyrand;  "go  and  be  crucified,  and  then 
be  buried,  and  then  /•/.«•  ntfuin  on  the  tltinl  <f<m,  and  then  go  on 
working  miracles,  raising  the  dead,  and  healing  all  manner  of 
diseases,  and  casting  out  devils  :  and  then  it  is  possiUe  that  \ou 
may  accomplish  your  end  !"  The  philosopher  went  away  silent  ; 
and  no  infidel  has  succeeded  in  fulfilling  these  conditions.  But 

•  See  Who  Made  the  Xew  Testament  f    tTcrtnl.,  Against  Heretics,  r.  xxxvi. 
t  For  a  few  overwhelming  proofs  of  the  authenticity  of  the  books  of  the  New 
Test,  consult  The  Corruptions  of  the  Xew  Testament,  by  H.  It.  Hastings. 


12  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Christ  has  died,  and  has  risen  again,  and  these  apostles  suffered 
the  loss  of  all  things,  and  even  of  life  itself,  in  proclaiming  these 
facts ;  and  they  left  their  testimony  on  record  in  this  Book. 
Then  the  apostles  quote  from  the  prophets,  and  the  prophets 
quote  from  the  Psalms,  and  refer  to  the  Law  which  was  given  on 
Mount  Sinai  ;  and  so  we  go  back  from  book  to  book,  until  we 
reach  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  that  does  not  quote  from  anybody 
or  anything.  You  have  then  reached  the  fountain-head. 

"  But,"  says  one,  "  I  think  that  the  Bible  may  be  a  true  history, 
but  that  is  no  proof  of  its  inspiration.  It  does  not  require  divine 
inspiration  to  write  a  true  history."  So  you  think  it  an  easy 
matter  to  tell  the  truth,  do  you  ?  I  wish  you  could  make  other 
people  think  so.  Suppose  you  go  and  read  a  file  of  the  newspapers 
published  just  before  the  last  election,  and  see  if  you  do  not  think 
it  requires  divine  inspiration  to  tell  the  truth,  or  even  to  find  it  out 
after  it  is  told.  Truth  is  mighty  hard  to  get  at,  as  you  can  see  by 
perusing  the  daily  papers  on  the  eve  of  an  election. 

There  are  certain  things  in  the  Bible  which,  to  my  mind, 
bear  the  impress  of  Divinity.  A  sceptic  will  tell  you  what  a  race 
of  old  sinners  we  read  about  in  the  Bible  !  Noah  got  drunk  ; 
David  was  guilty  of  adultery  and  murder;  Solomon  was  an 
idolater,  and  wrought  folly;  Peter  denied  his  Lord, 'and  Judas 
sold  him  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver  ;  all  these  people  that  the  Bible 
talks  to  us  so  much  about  are  a  pretty  set  of  men  !  Very  well  ; 
what  kind  of  men  do  you  expect  to  read  about  in  the  Bible  ?  Noah 
got  drunk.  Is  that  strange?  Did  no  one  else  ever  get  drunk? 
IVier  cursed  and  swore.  Are  there  not  other  men  who  curse  and 
swear?  Judas,  an  apostle,  sold  his  Lord,  who  said  he  had  chosen 
twelve  and  one  of  tliem  was  a  devil.  Do  you  not  sometimes  find  a 
Judas  in  the  church  even  now-a-days?  One  in  twelve  was  a  thief 
and  a  traitor  then  ;  and  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  we  find  about 
the  same  average  now.  Hut  you  seem  to  think  that  when  you 
read  about  a  man  in  the  Bible  he  is  sure  to  be  free  from  all  kinds 
of  errors,  frailties,  faults,  and  sins.  Yon  have  formed  this  idea  of 
men  from  reading  in  Sunday -school  l»ooks  about  good  children, 
who  usually  die  young  ;  or  perusing  excellent  biographies,  which, 
as  you  read  them,  cause  you  to  exclaim,  "I  wish  I  could  he  as 
gooil  as  (lint  person  was  ;  but  1  never  shall."  No,  I  presume  you 
ne\er  will  and  if  you  knew  the  whole  story  about  the  person  you 

might  not  feel  so  deeply  on  the  subject. 

Do  you  suppose  that  if  the  Bible  had  been  written  by  some 
lenriied  doctor,  rc\  JM'd  by  :i  committee  of  eminent  divines,  and 
published  by  some  great  religious  society,  we  should  ever  have 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.  13 

heard  of  Noah's  drunkenness,  of  Abraham's  deception,  of  Lot's 
disgrace,  of  Jacob's  cheating,  of  Paul  and  Barnabas'  quarrelling, 
or  of  Peter's  lying,  cursing,  or  dissembling  ?  Not  at  all.  The 
good  men,  when  they  came  to  such  an  incident,  would  have  said, 
"  There  is  no  use  in  saying  anything  about  that.  It  is  all  past 
and  gone ;  it  will  not  help  anything,  and  it  will  only  hurt 
the  cause."  If  a  committee  of  such  eminent  divines  had 
prepared  the  Bible,  you  would  have  had  a  biography  of  men 
whose  characters  were  patterns  of  piety  and  propriety,  instead  of 
poor  sinners,  as  they  were.  Sometimes  a  man  writes  his  own 
diary  and  happens  to  leave  it  for  some  one  to  print  after  he  is 
dead  ;  but  he  leaves  out  all  the  mean  tricks  he  ever  did,  and  puts 
in  all  the  good  .acts  he  can  think  of  ;  and  you  read  the  pages,  filled 
with  astonishment,  and  think,  "  What  a  wonderfully  good  man  he 
was  !  "  But  when  the  Almighty  writes  a  man's  life  he  tells  the 
truth  about  him  ;  and  there  are  not  many  persons  who  would 
want  their  lives  printed  if  the  Almighty  wrote  them. 

Suppose  a  young  man  goes,  say  from  the  country,  down  to  the 
city.  Perhaps  he  is  a  rich  man's  son,  who  has  had  more  money 
than  was  good  for  him  at  home,  and  who  comes  to  the  city  to  see 
the  sights.  He  sails  around  in  dangerous  waters,  and  slips  into 
various  ports  that  are  not  exactly  safe,  and  the  next  morning  finds 
him  hauled  up  before  His  Honor  in  the  police  court.  You  get  a 
morning  paper,  and  you  expect  to  find  the  full  particulars  of  the 
case.  You  do,  do  you  ?  You  find  a  paragraph  on  this  wise  :  "A 
certain  young  man  from  the  rural  districts  came  to  town 
yesterday,  sailed  around  in  dillerent  parts  of  the  city,  and  fell  into 
rather  bad  company.  This  morning  lie  was  brought  up  before  His 
Honor,  who  admonished  him  to  be  more  careful  in  the  future,  and 
he  departed  a  sadder  and  a  wiser  young  man."  *  This  is  the  kind 
of  paragraph  you  will  find  in  the  papers  when  a  rich  man's  son 
conies  to  the  city,  goes  on  a  spree,  and  has  his  head  smashed  and 
his  eye  banged  in  a  fight ;  you  don't  get  many  particulars.  But  if 
he  is  a  poor  vagalinnd,  without  a  second  shirt  to  his  back,  yon  can 
get  his  name,  and  perhaps  his  genealogy  for  generations,  and  all 
the  particulars  of  his  case.  This  is  the  way  nn-n  write  history  ; 
but  when  the  Lord  undertakes  to  tell  his  story  of  a  sinful  man,  he 
does  not  select  a  poor,  miserable  beggar,  and  show  him  up  ;  he 
does  not  give  even  the  name  of  the  thief  on  the  cross,  nor  of  the 
wretched  outcast  who  bathed  the  Saviour's  feet  with  her  tears,  nor 
of  the  guilty  woman  to  whom  lie  said,  "  Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee  :  go  and  sin  no  more;"  but  he  takes  King  David  from 
•  Bee  Illustration  on  p.  17. 


14  THE  INSPIRATION   OF   THE  BIBLE. 

the  throne,  and  sets  him  down  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and 
wrings  from  his  heart  the  cry,  "  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  CJod, 
according  to  thy  loving-kindness  :  according  unto  the  multitude  of 
thy  tender  mercies  blot  out  my  transgressions."  And  then  when 
he  is  pardoned,  forgiven,  cleansed,  and  made  whiter  than  snow, 
the  pen  of  inspiration  writes  down  the  whole  dark,  damning  record 
of  Ins  crimes,  and  the  king  on  his  throne  lias  not  power,  nor  wealth, 
nor  influence  enough  to  blot  the  page  ;  and  it  goes  into  history 
for  infidels  to  scoff  at  for  three  thousand  years.  Who  wrote  that  ? 

Yon  find  a  man  who  will  tell  the  truth  about  kings,  Avarriors, 
princes,  and  rulers  to-day,  and  you  may  be  quite  sure  that  he  has 
within  him  the  pOAver  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  a  book  which  tells 
the  faults  of  those  Avho  Avrote  it,  and  Avhich  tells  you  that  "  there 
is  none  righteous,  no,  not  one,"  bears  in  it  the  marks  of  a  true  book  ; 
for  we  all  know  that  men  have  faults,  and  failings,  and  sins  ;  and 
among  all  the  men  whose  lives  are  recorded  in  that  book,  each  man 
lias  some  defect,  some  blot,  except  one,  "  the  man  ( 'hrist  Jesus." 

NOAV  AVC  have  to  discuss  this  subject  from  all  points  of  view,  but 
mainly  from  the  direction  of  objections.  Men  love  objections  ; 
and  so  they  say  there  are  diflicnlties,  and  absurdities,  and  errors, 
and  contrail ictions  in  the  Bible.  You  have  all  heard  such 
assertions.  After  speaking  once  in  the  city  of  Boston,  an  ex- 
minister  came  to  me  and  told  me  that  the  Bible  Avas  not  true,  for 
there  was  that  story  which  Moses  told  about  the  quails.  Israel 
In :-ted  at'ier  llesh,  and  the  Lord  sent  them  quails  to  eat,  .and  they 
fell  by  the  camp  a  day's  journey  on  each  side,  or  over  a  territory 
forty  miles  across,  and  they  Avere  two  cubits  deep  on  the  ground, 
and  the  Israelites  ate  them  for  a  full  month.  I  have  in  my 
possession  an  inlidel  paper  which  AVHS  published  in  Boston,  in 
which  there  is  about  a  column  of  arguments  and  figures  on  this 
"(|iiail  siory  :"  giving  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  bushels  of 
(jiiails  that  were  piled  up  over  the  country,  and  showing  that  Avlien 
they  were  divided  among  the  people,  each  one  would  have  2,SS8,043 
bushels  of  quails,  which  they  were  to  eat  during  the  month  ; 
giving  each  poor  Israelite  (JiUi'JO  bushels  of  quails  to  eat  at,  each 
meal  for  thirty  days,  and  therefore  the  Bible  \vus  not  true  !  That  is 
the  meat  on  which  these,  sceptical  Cjesjirs  grow  so  wondrous  great. 

I  said  to  this  gentleman,  "The  Bible  does  not  say  any  such 
thing!"  lie  replied  that  it  certainly  did  ;  but  I  answered  that  it 
did  not,  say  any  such  thing.  He  insisted  that,  it  did.  "Well," 
said  I,  "  find  it  !  "  And  when  you  ask  an  inlidel  to_//W  anything 
in  the  Bible,  you  generally  ha\e  him.  Me  could  n-d,  find  the 
place  ;  so  I  turned  over  to  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Numbers,  and 


THE   INSPIRATION    OK   THE   BIBLE.  15 

there  read  that  instead  <>f  tho  birds  being  packed  like  cord-wood 
on  the  ground,  three  feet  ilir/>,  iho  account  says  that  the  Lord 
brought  the  quails  from  the  sea,  and  let  them  fall  by  the  camp,  as 
it  were  "  two  cubits  /</<///,"  or  about  three  feet  high  upon,  or  nlioce 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Thai  is,  instead  of  living  overhead  and  out 
of  reach,  they  were  brought  in  about  three  feet  h i<j/t,  where  any 
one  <-on Id  take  as  many  of  them  as  he  chose.*  And  this  sceptical 
friend  had  got  the  birds  packed  solid,  three  feet  deep,  over  a 
territory  forty  miles  across.  As  if  I  should  say  that  a  Hock  of 
wild  geese  Hew  a-  high  as  a  church  spire,  and  some  one  should 
insist  that  they  were  purl;*;}  soliil  from  the  ground  up,  a  hundred 
feet  high  !  This  is  a  sample  of  the  kind  of  arguments  infidels 
bring  to  prove  that  the  Bible  is -not  true  ! 

The  book,  to  my  mind,  bears  the  marks  of  inspiration  in  tha 
foresight  which  it  exhibits.  This  book  foretells  things.  You 
cannot  do  that.  You  cannot  tell  what  will  be  next  year,  or  next 
week.  "  The  >pirits  "  cannot  tell  who  will  be  the  next  president, 
or  governor,  or  emperor.  They  may  tell  a  great  many  things  which 
are  ]ntxt.  They  may  tell  you  who  your  grandmother  was,  and 
may  copy  the  inscription  on  your  grandfather's  grave-stone,  and 
may  tell  things  which  are  written  in  the  family  record.  They 
may  reveal  many  things  in  the  past — for  the  devil  knows  about 
the  past — but  ti icy  cannot  foretell  the  future.  I  did  hear  of  one 
spiritual  medium  who  foretold  her  own  death,  and  she  died  within 
a  few  boon  ;  but  when  they  got  the  stomach-pump,  they  pumped 
out  of  her  stomach  poison  enough  to  kill  two  or  three.  That  kind 
of  prophecy  requires  no  omniscient  foresight. 

Years  ago  I  talked  with  an  infidel  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts, 
and  he  wanted  me  to  give  him  some  evidence  that  the  Bible  was 
tine.  After  some  conversation,  I  loaned  him  a  little  volume, 
an  abridgement  ol  ]\<  till  on  Prophecy,  Some  ten  \ears  after,  as  I 
took  my  seat  in  a  railway  train,  he  came  and  sat  down  beside  me 
and  began  to  talk,  and  lie  said  :  "  If  i/nu  want  that  book  yon  can 
have  it;  but  no  one  else  can  have  it  at  any  price."  It  had 
knocked  his  infidelity  into  atoms,  and  he  was  a  believer  in  Christ, 
and  a  member  of  the  church. 

*  The  Hebrew  word  nl,  rendered  upon,  Num.  xi.  31,  signifies  above  or  over, 
as  \\vll  as  upon ;  ami  it  is  applied  to  the  flight  of  birds,  "fowl  that  may  fly 
above  the  earth"  (den.  i.  20) ;  "a  wind  to  pass  over  tho  earth"  (Gen.  viii.  li ; 
"  The  curse  that  goeth  forth  arrr  the  face  of  the  earth  "  (/rcli.  v.  :<i ;  "  Dark- 
ness was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep ;  and  the  Spirit  of  (lo-l  moved  «y>on  tho 
face  of  the  waters  "  (Ccii.  1.  2).  The  Sfytiuigint  renders  it  by  opo,  "from  tho 
earth  ;"  and  the  Douai  version  gives  the  true  souse  thus:  "  They  flew  in  tho 
air  two  cubits  high  above  the  ground." 


16  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

The  revelations  of  prophecy  are  facts  which  exhibit  the  divine 
omniscience.  So  long  as  Babylon  is  in  heaps  ;  so  long  as  Nineveh 
lies  empty,  void,  and  waste  ;  so  long  as  Egypt  is  the  basest  of 
kingdoms  ;  so  long  as  Tyre  is  a  place  for  the  spreading  of  nets  in 
the  midst  of  the  sea ;  so  long  as  Israel  is  scattered  among  all 
nations ;  so  long  as  Jerusalem  is  trodden  under  foot  of  the 
Glentiles  ;  so  long  as  the  great  empires  of  the  world  march  on  in 
their  predicted  course, — so  long  we  have  proof  that  one  Omniscient 
Mind  dictated  the  predictions  of  that  book,  and  "  prophecy  came 
not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man."  * 

We  call  this  Bible  a  book  ;  but  here  are  sixty-six  different 
books,  written  by  thirty  or  forty  different  men.  A  man  may  say, 
" I  do  not  believe  in  the  book  of  Esther."  Well,  what  of  that? 
We  have  sixty-five  others  left.  What  will  you  do  with  them  ? 
A  man  says,  "I  find  fault  with  this  chapter,  or  with  that." 
Suppose  you  do  ?  If  you  were  on  trial  for  murder,  and  had  sixty- 
six  witnesses  against  you,  suppose  you  impeach  one  of  them,  there 
are  sixty-five  left ;  impeach  another,  and  you  still  have  sixty -four  ; 
impeach  another,  and  you  have  sixty-three — surely  enough  to 
hang  you  if  you  are  guilty.  Do  you  not  see  that  you  cannot 
impeach  this  book  unless  you  do  it  in  detail  ?  Each  book  bears  its 
own  witness,  and  stands  by  itself  on  its  own  merits  ;  and  yet  each 
book  is  linked  with  all  the  rest.  Blot  out  one,  if  you  can.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  it  would  be  difficult  to  do  this.  This  book  seems 
built  to  stay  together ;  it  is  inspired  by  one  Spirit. 

The  authorship  of  this  book  is  wonderful.  Here  are  words 
written  by  kings,  by  emperors,  by  princes,  by  poets,  by  sages,  by 
philosophers,  by  fishermen,  by  statesmen  ;  by  men  learned  in  the 
wisdom  of  Egypt,  educated  in  the  schools  of  Babylon,  trained  up 
at  the  feet  of  rabbis  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  written  by  men  in 
exile,  in  the  desert,  in  shepherds'  tents,  in  "  green  pastures  "  and 
beside  "still  waters."  Among  its  authors  we  find  the  tax- 
gatherer,  the  herdsman,  the  gatherer  of  sycamore  fruit  ;  we  find 
poor  men,  rich  men,  statesmen,  preachers,  exiles,  captains,  legis- 
lators, judges ;  men  of  every  grade  and  class  are  represented 
in  this  wonderful  volume;  which  is  in  reality  a  library,  -filled  witli 
history,  genealogy,  ethnology,  law,  ethics,  prophecy,  poetry, 
eloquence,  medicine,  sanitary  science,  political  economy,  and 
perfect  rules  for  the  conduct  of  personal  and  social  life.  It 
contains  all  kinds  of  writing ;  br.t  what  a  jumble  it  would  be  if 
sixty-six  >>ooks  were  written  in  this  way  by  ordinary  men. 


•  Jcr.  11. 37 ;  Ezck.  xxii.  13 ;  Ezck.  xxvl.  6 ;  Deut.  xxviii.  C4 ;  8  Petwr  1. 21. 


17 


Me  departed  jjr 
a  gadder  ana  vrtfer young  man 


18  THE  INSPIRATION   OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  that  we  get  sixty-six  medical  books  written 
by  thirty  or  forty  different  doctors  of  various  schools,  believers  in 
allopathy,  homoeopathy,  hydropathy,  and  all  the  other  "pathies," 
bind  them  all  together,  and  then  undertake  to  doctor  a  man  • 
according  to  that  book  !  What  man  would  be  fool  enough  to 
risk  the  results  of  practising  such  a  system  of  medicine  ?  Or 
suppose  you  get  thirty-five  editors  at  work  writing  treatises  on 
politics,  or  thirty-five  ministers  writing  books  on  theology,  and 
then  see  if  you  can  find  any  leather  strong  enough  to  hold  the 
books  together  when  they  are  done. 

But  again,  it  required  fifteen  hundred  years  to  write  this  book, 
and  the  man  who  wrote  the  closing  pages  of  it  had  no  com- 
immication  with  the  man  who  commenced  it.  How  did  these  men, 
writing  independently,  produce  such  a  book  ?  Other  books  get  out 
of  date  when  they  are  ten  or  twenty  years  old  :  but  this  book 
lives  on  through  the  ages,  and  keeps  abreast  of  the  mightiest 
thought  and  intellect  of  every  age. 

Suppose  that  thirty  or  forty  men  should  walk  in  through  that 
door.  One  man  comes  from  Maine,  another  from  New  Hampshire, 
another  from  Massachusetts,  and  so  on  from  each  state,  each  bear- 
ing a  block  of  marble  of  peculiar  shape.  Suppose  I  pile  up  these 
blocks  in  order,  until  1  have  the  figure  of  a  man,  perfectly 
symmetrical  and  beautifully  chiselled,  and  I  say,  "  How  did  these 
men,  who  have  never  seen  each  other,  chisel  out  that  beautiful 
statue  ?  "  You  say,  "  That  is  easily  explained.  One  man  planned 
that  whole  statue,  made  the  patterns,  gave  the  directions,  and 
distributed  them  around  ;  and  so,  each  man  working  by  the 
pattern,  the  work  fits  accurately  when  completed."  Very  well. 
Here  is  a  book  coming  from  all  quarters,  written  by  men  of  all 
classes,  scattered  through  a  period  of  fifteen  hundred  years  ;  and 
vet  tliis  book  is  filled  together  as  a  wondrous  and  harmonious 
whole.  How  was  it  done?  "Holy  men  of  (Jod  spake  as  they 
were  mo\  (•(!  by  the  Holy  (Jhost."  One  mind  inspires  the  whole 
book,  one  voice  speaks  in  it  all,  and  it  is  the  voice  of  (Jod  speak- 
ing with  resurrection  power. 

Again,  1  conclude  th;it  this  book  has  in  it  the  very  breatii  of 
(Jod,  from  the  effect  that  it  produces  upon  men.  There  are  men 
who  study  philosophy,  astronomy,  geology,  geography,  and 
mathematics  ;  hut  did  you  ever  hear  a  man  say,  "  I  was  an  out- 
i  \\  rel«-hed  inebriate,  a  disgrace  to  my  race,  and  a  nuisance 
in  the  world,  until  I  began  to  study  mathematics,  and  learned  the 
multiplication  table,  and  then  turned  my  attention  to  geology,  got 
Hie  a  little  hammer,  and  Knocked  off  the  corners  of  the  rocks  and 


11IK    INSTIIIATION    (»K   THE  lilltuG.  19 

-tndied  the  fonnation  of  the  earth,  and  since  that  time  I  have 
ueen  happy  as  the  day  is  long;  I  feel  like  singing  all  the  time, 
»iil  is  full  of  triumph  and  peace;  and  health  and  Messing 
h;i\  e  (Mime  to  my  desolate  home  mice  more  ?"  Did  you  ever  hear 
a  man  ascribe  his  redemption  and  salvation  from  intemperance  ;md 
-111  and  vice  to  the  multiplication  talile,  or  the  science  of  mathe- 
matics or  geology  '!  Hut  I  ran  bring  you,  not  one  man,  or  two,  or 
ten,  lint  men  l>y  the  thousand  who  will  tell  you,  "  I  was 
wretched;  I  was  lost;  I  hroke  my  poor  old  mother's  heart  :  I 
I  M  •inured  my  family  ;  my  wife  was  heart  -stricken  and  dejected  ; 
my  children  ll^l  from  l  lie  sound  of  their  father's  footsteps;  I  wa- 
ruined,  reckle>s,  helpless,  homeless,  hopeless,  until  i  heard  the 
words  of  that  Hook  !  "  And  he  will  tell  you  the  very  word  which 
fastened  on  his  soui.  It  may  be  it  vas  "Come  unto  Me,  all  ye 
that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest;"  perhaps 
it  was,  ••  liehold  the  I  ..am  h  of  God,  which  t;iketh  away  the^sin  of 
the  world  ;"  it  may  have  been,  "  God' so  loved  the  world,  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  He  can  tell  you  the 
very  word  that  saved  his  soul.  And  since  that  word  entered  his 
heart,  he  will  tell  you  that  hope  has  dawned  upon  his  vision  ;  that 
joy  has  inspired  his  heart ;  and  that  his  mouth  is  lilled  with  graie 
ful  son;;.  He  will  tell  you  that  the  blush  of  health  has  come  back 
to  his  poor  wife's  faded  cheek  ;  that  the  old  hats  have  vanished 
from  the  windows  of  his  desolate  home  ;  that  his  rag-  have  been 
exchanged  for  good  clothe?-  ;  that  his  ehildren  run  to  meet  him 
when  he  comes  ;  that  there  is  bread  on  his  table,  lire  on  his 
hearth,  and  comfort  in  his  dwelling.  He  will  tell  you  all  that,  and 
he  will  tell  you  that  this  IJo.ik  has  wrought  the  change. 

Now  this  lKX>k  is  working  just  such  miracles,  and  is  doing  i. 
every  day.  If  you  have  any  other  liook  that  will  do  such  work  as 
this,  bring  it  along.  The  work  needs  to  be  done  ;  if  you  have  any 
oilier  book  that  will  do  it,  for  Heaven's  sake  bring  it  out.  Hut  for 
the  present,  while  we  are  waiting  for  yon.  as  we  know  this  lx>ok  n-Hl 
do  tho  work,  we  mean  to  use  it  until  we  can  get  something  better 

What  we  most  need  is  the  book  itself.  It  is  iis  own  licst 
witness  and  defender.  Chri.-tians  sometimes  try  to  defend  the 
word  of  God.  It  -eem-  like  half  a  do/.en  poodle  dog-  trying  to  de 
fend  a  lion  in  hi-  cage.  The  be-t  thing  for  us  to  do  i-  to  slip  the 
bars  and  let  the  lion  out,  and  he  will  defend  himself!  And  the 
l«-t  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  bring  out  the  word  of  God,  and  let 
"the  sword  of  the  Spirit"  prove  its  own  power,  as  it  pierces 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit. 


jJU  THE  INSPIRATION   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

Suppose,  for  example,  all  the  good  people  of  this  town  should 
5ry  the  Bible,  say  for  a  single  year.  Suppose  you  start  to-night, 
and  say,  "  We  have  heard  about  that  book,  and  now  we  will  begin 
iud  practise  its  teachings  just  one  year. "  What  would  be  the 
result  ?  There  would  be  no  lying,  no  stealing,  no  selling  ruin,  no 
getting  drunk,  no  tattling,  no  mischief-making,  no  gossiping,  no 
vice  nor  debauchery.  Every  man  would  be  a  good  man,  every 
•voman  a  good  woman  ;  every  man  would  be  a  good  husband, 
lather,  or  brother ;  every  woman  a  good  wife,  mother,  or  sister  ; 
every  one  in  the  community  would  be  peaceable  ;  there  would  be 
no  brawls,  no  quarrels,  no  fights,  no  lawsuits  ;  lawyers  would 
almost  starve  to  death  ;  doctors  would  have  light  practice,  and 
plenty  of  time  to  hoe  in  their  gardens  ;  courts  would  be  useless, 
jails  and  lock-ups  empty,  almshouses  cleared  out  of  their  inmates, 
except  a  few  old  stagers  left  over  from  the  past  generation  ;  taxes 
would  be  reduced,  hard  times  would  trouble  nobody, — all  would 
be  well  dressed  and  well  cared  for  ;  and  presently  the  news  would 
go  abroad,  and  we  should  hear  in  Boston,  "  What  wonderful  times 
they  are  having  up  there  in  old  Spencer.  The  people  have  all  gone 
to  living  according  to  the  Bible."  The  news  would  get  into  all  the 
local  papers,  the  Springfield  papers,  the  Boston  papers,  the  New 
York  papers  ;  the  telegraph  wires  would  be  kept  busy  with  the 
news ;  they  would  hear  of  it  in  Cleveland,  in  Cincinnati,  in 
Chicago,  in  St.  Louis,  in  New  Bedford,  and  Fall  River,  and  Port- 
land ;  and  the  reporters  would  start  oft'  to  investigate.  One  would 
be  inquiring,  "  Are  there  any  houses  to  let  in  Spencer  ?  any  to  sell  ? 
any  building  lots  ?  any  farms  for  sale  ?  "  Capitalists  would  come 
here ;  some  man  from  Boston  would  say,  ' '  I  am  going  to  move 
to  Spencer ;  I  am  sick  of  the  noise  and  hurry  of  the  city,  and  T 
want  a  place  where  I  can  bring  up  my  children,  and  not  have 
them  go  to  perdition  ; "  there  would  be  a  general  rush  from  all 
quarters  to  Spencer.  It  would  raise  the  price  of  real  estate 
twenty-live  per  cent,  in  six  months  ;  taxes  would  eo.ne  down,  pro- 
perty would  go  up,  and  good  people  from  far  and  near  would  want 
to  move  into  town,  and  nobody  who  \v;is  worth  having  there  would 
want  to  move  out.  And  this  would  be  the  direct  result  of  reading 
and  obeying  this  book.  Now,  if  a  l>ook  will  do  that  for  a  community, 
what  kind  of  a  l>ook  is  it?  Is  such  a  book  the  Lord's  book  or  the 
devil's  l«)ok  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  a  book  which  will  do  such  work 
;is  that  must  l>e  inspired  by  the  very  brent h  of  the  Almighty. 

The  bunk  is  its  own  witness.  It  bears  its  own  fruits  and  tells 
its  own  story.  The  great  trouble  with  us  is,  we  do  not  read  this 
book,  we  do  not  use  it,  we  do  not  understand  it.  It  is  a  sorrowful 


THE  INSPIRATION    OK   THE   BIBLfc.  21 

vact  that  you  can  hardly  go  into  a  prayer-meeting  but  you  are 
likely  to  hear  a  quotation  for  Scripture  that  is  not  in  the  Bible 
and  never  was.  You  may  hear,  "  In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in 
<leiith,"  from  the  prayer-book,  "  He  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn 
lamb,"  from  an  old  romance  ;  "God  unchangeably  ordains  what- 
>oe\er  conn's  to  pass,"  from  the  Catechism  ;  accompanied  by 
passages  misquoted,  misunderstood,  and  misapplied,  which  show 
that  the  people  do  not  read  their  Bibles,  and  do  not  -understand 
tin-in  :  and  the  worst  tiling  about  it  is,  one-half  the  people  who  go 
l«>  meeting  do  not  seem  to  know  the  diMerence.  We  need  to  read 
the  Bible,  to  search  it,  study  it,  believe  it,  and  obey  it,  and  we 
shall  lind  that  it  is  tilled  with  sanctifying  power  to  our  own  souls, 
and  that  it  is  the  word  of  salvation  to  the  lost  and  perishing. 

But  says  one,  "  I  do  not  understand  the  Bible.  I  read  it,  but  1 
cannot  make  anything  of  it.  Somehow  it  is  obscure,  and  my  mind 
does  not  take  hold  of  it."  How  do  you  read  your  Bible?  "  Oh,  I 
read  a  chapter  now  and  then,;  I  read  it  here  and  there." 

Suppose  your  boy  comes  home  from  school  and  says,  "  I  can't 
make  anything  of  this  arithmetic  ;  it  is  all  dark  to  me."  You  say 
to  him,  "  How  did  you  study  it?"  "Oh,  I  read  a  little  at  the 
beginning,  and  then  1  turned  to  the  middle  and  read  a  little  here 
and  there,  and  skipped  backward  and  forward.  But  I  don't 
understand  it  ;  I  can't  see  into  it." 

You  say  to  him,  "My  son,  that  is  not  the  way  to  understand 
arithmetic.  Yon  must  begin  at  the  beginning,  with  the  simplest 
elements,  master  every  principle,  learn  every  rule,  solve  every 
problem,  and  perform  every  example,  and  then  the  whole  book  will 
open  to  yon  as  you  go  on." 

When  yon  read  a  novel  do  you  begin  in  the  middle,  and  read  a 
page  here  and  a  line  there,  and  skip  about  hither  and  thither,  ami 
say,  "I  can't  make  anything  of  this  book  ?  "  No;  you  begin  at 
tin-  beginning,  M  here  "A  solitary  horseman  was  seen  one  dark, 
tempestuous  night,  riding  along 'upon  the  margin  of  a  swollen 
stream  which  wound  about  the  base  of  a  lofty  mountain,  on  which 
sto.nl  an  -ancient  cattle,"  etc.,  etc.  There  is  where  you  Ix'gin  ; 
.and  then  yon  read  every  line  and  every  page  of  the  lM>ok  until  you 
get  to  the  end.  Sometimes  they  print  a  column  or  two  of  a  story 
in  a  paper,  and  ^o  and  scatter  it  through  the  town,  and  at  the  end 
;>f  it  yon  will  read,  "  The  remainder  of  this  thrilling  story  will  IM> 
j'oiind  in  the  columns  of  the  Weekly  Bluzinij  Count  ;"  and  then 
\.ni-tartoirdowii  to  the  news-room  and  buy  the  lUnzinfj  Cmmf 
to  find  out  how  the  story  ends  !  Why  will  you  not  take  the  I'.ible 
and  read  it  in  the  same  way  ?  Why  will  you  not  give  as  much 


22  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

attention  to  the  faithful  words  of  the  living  God  as  you  will  to 
a  pack  of  lies  spun  out  by  some  sinful  man  ?  Why  will  you  not 
take  the  Bible  and  read  it  from  beginning  to  end,  and  see  how  it 
comes  out  ?  You  will  find  it  the  grandest  and  most  thrilling  story 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Sometimes,  when  you  have  not  time 
to  read  a  novel  through,  you  read  the  first  chapter  or  two,  to  find 
out  who  the  hero  is,  and  then  skim  through  the  pages  and  read 
the  closing  chapters  and  find  out  who  was  murdered,  who  was 
hung,  and  who  was  married  ;  and  then  you  can  guess  the  rest,  for 
there  is  usually  about  so  much  sawdust  put  in  the  middle  for  stuff- 
ing. Why  will  you  not  do  ajj. much  as  this  for  the  Bible?  Begin 
at  the  beginning,  and  read  until  you  find  out  who  is  the  hero  of 
the  story.  You  will  find  that  the  presence  of  one  Person  pervades 
the  whole  book.  If  you  go  into  a  British  navy-yard,  or  on  board 
a  British  vessel,  and  pick  up  a  piece  of  rope,  you  will  find  that 
there  is  one  little  red  thread  which  runs  through  the  whole  of  it — 
through  every  foot  of  cordage  which  belongs  to  the  British  govern- 
ment— so,  if  a  piece  of  rope  is  stolen,  it  may  be  cut  into  inch 
pieces,  but  every  piece  has  the  mark  which  tells  where  it  belongs. 
It  is  so  with  the  Bible.  You  may  separate  it  into  a  thousand 
parts,  and  yet  you  will  find  one  thought — one  great  fact  running 
through  the  whole  of  it.  You  will  find  it  constantly  pointing  and 
referring  to  one  great  Personage — "  the  Seed  of  the  woman  '  that 
shall  crush  the  serpent's  head  ;  "  the  Seed  of  Abraham,"  in  whom 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed;  "the  Seed  of 
David,"  who  shall  sit  on  David's  throne  and  reign  for  evermore  ; 
the  despised  and  rejected  Sufferer,  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  the  Christ 
of  God,  born  in  Bethlehem,  crucified  on  Calvary,  rising  trium- 
phant from  Joseph's  tomb,  ascending  to  sit  at  God's  right  hand. 
and  coming  again  to  judge  the  world  and  reign  as  King  and  Lord 
of  all  for  ever.  Around  this  one  mighty  Personage  this  whole  book 
revolves.  "  To  him  give  all  the  prophets  witness  ;  "  and  this  book, 
which  predicts  his  coming  in  its  earliest  pages,  which  foreshadows 
his  person  and  his  ministry  through  all  its  observances,  types,  and 
sacred  prophecies,  reveals  in  its  closing  lines  the  eternal  splendours 
which  shall  crown  and  consummate  his  mighty  work. 

God's  Word  declares  the  end  from  the  beginning.  It  is  not  only 
the  chart  which  guides  each  weary  wanderer  to  his  own  eternal 
rest,  but  it  is  the  record  of  the  great  plan  and  purpose  of  the 
Almighty  concerning  the  world  which  he  has  made,  and  the 
church  which  he  has  redeemed.  It,  unfolds  God's  everlasting 
piirpu-;e,  as  manifested  in  .Jesus  Christ  ;  and  if  one  will  read 
three  chapters  at  the  beginning  of  the  Bible  and  three  at  the 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  BIBLE.  23 

end,  he  will  be  struck  with  the  correspondence  which  there  exists. 
At  the  beginning  «>f  the  Uihle  we  iind  a  new  world  :  "  In  the 
beginning  (iod  created  the  heaven  and  tlie  earth."  At  the  end  of 
tin'  Hilile  we  find  a  new  world  :  "  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth;  for  the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away." 
At  the  beginning,  we  find  Satan  entering  to  deceive  and  destroy; 
at  the  end,  we  find  Satan  cast  out,  "that  he  should  deceive  the 
nations  no  more."  At  the  beginning,  sin  and  pain  and  sorrow  and 
sighing  and  death  find  entrance  to  the  world  ;  at  the  end,  there 
shall  be  no  more  pain  nor  sorrow  nor  sighing,  and  no  more  death. 
At  the  beginning,  the  earth,  for  man's  transgression,  is  cursed 
with  thorn*  and  thistles;  at  the  end,  ''there  shall  be  no  more 
curse  :  but  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  in  it.".  At 
the  beginning,  we  find  the  tree  of  life  in  paradise,  from  which  the 
sinner  is  shut  away  by  a  flaming  sword,  lest  he  eat  and  live 
for  ever  ;  at  the  end,  we  find  the  tree  of  life  again  "  in  the  midst  of 
the  paradise  of  God,"  and  the  hlcsM-d  ami  the  blood- washed  ones 
have  a  right  to  the  tree  of  lite,  and  "enter  in  through  the  gates 
into  the  city."  At  the  beginning,  man  was  brought  beneath  the 
dominion  of  death  and  the  grave  ;  at  the  end,  "  the  dead,  small 
and  great,  stand  before  God,"  the  sea  gives  up  its  dead,  and  death 
and  hell  are  cast  into  the  lake  of  lire.  At  the  beginning,  the 
first  Adam  lost  his  dominion  over  earth,  and  was  driven  out  of  the 
garden  of  Eden  in  shame  ami  sorrow  ;  at  the  end,  we  find  the 
second  Adam,  victorious  over  sin  and  death  and  hell,  enthroned  as 
King  and  Lord  of  all,  and  reigning  in  triumph  and  glory  for  ever. 

Now,  when  you  get  the  plan  of  this  book,  you  find  that  it  is 
something  more  than  a  book  of  detached  sentence*,  good  maxims 
and  comforting  words.  It  is  a  book  which  unfolds  the  divine 
purpose,  and  not  only  reveals  the  way  of  salvation,  but  marks  the 
pathway  of  the  people  of  God  through  this  wilderness,  and  fore- 
shows the  destiny  of  the  world  which  he  has  made  and  the  church 
which  he  has  redeemed. 

\Vhen  we  look  at  these  farts  we  see  that  this  is  no  man's  Inuik. 
When  Columbus  saw  the  river  Orinoco,  some  one  said  lie  had  dis- 
covered an  island.  He  replied  :  "  No  Midi  river  as  that  Hows  from 
an  island.  That  mighty  torrent  must  drain  the  waters  of  a 
continent."  So  this  book  comes,  not  from  the  empty  bent-  <>f 
impostors,  liars,  and  deceivers  ;  it  springs  from  the  eternal  depths 
of  divine  wisdom,  1m  e,  and  grace.  ll  i<  the  f  ransrript  of  the 
divine  mind,  the  unfolding  of  the  di\  ine  purpose,  the  revelation  of 

the  divine  \\ill.     God  help  us  to  receive  it,  to  believe  it,  and 
be  saved  through  Christ  our  Lord. 


H.  L.  HASTINGS'  PUBLICATIONS. 


ORDER   LIST   FOR   1802 


Ancient  Heathenism  and  .fluff m 
Spiritualism."  II  L  Hastings  5cm- 

.Ittli-lntiilrl  Library,  The.  Edited 
by  H  L  Hastings  About  40  numbers  issued. 
All  Titles  with  a  star  (•)-belotig  to  it 

•si lit >-  Tobacco Crusader,  The.  Quar 
lei  ly  Per  year,  in  advance.  5O  els. 

•armory.  The,  is  part  of  The  Christian 

^  I  lit  i*  HI  V  Arithmetic.'  15c  ,  35  cu 

Itabr  of  Bethlehem.  AV  ,  Cl  .  5O  cts 

Bible  Rhymes,  Bible  Lessons.  Aqua 
Bell  and  H  L.  H  Pp  80.  Manilla.  1O  cts. 

Bible  Triumphant,  The.'  Mrs.  H.V. 
Keed.  Manilla.  36  ets;  Cloth,  8O<tv 

Christian.  The.  Monthly,  16  p.  $1  00. 

Christian  Safeguard,  part o(  Christian. 

Common  People,  TJ»«,partof  Christian. 

Consecration.  U.L.H.  lOc. ,  Cl..  25ct9. 

Corruption*  of  .W  ir  Testament, 
The.'  H.  L  H.  15  cts. .  Cloth,  35  cis 

Credibility  of  the  Christian  Reltg- 
t on,  Tilt.  S.  Smith  Pa..2oc. .  Cl  ,35c. 

Oarurintsm."   Patterson.   Pp.  70, 16  cts. 

Depths  of  Satan,  The.'  6  cts. 

Ebenexers.   ll.L.H.  Cr  Hvo..Cl..Q1.0O. 

Egypt  in  History  ana  Prophecy.' 
K  Patterson  Cr.  8vo  ,  pp  67  Ma  .  l(j  cts. 

Errors  of  Evolution,  The.'  Cl.,  $1. 

Familiar   Spirits.'    Ramsey.      5  cts. 

Family  Circle,  The.   II  1,  II     $1.OO. 

Fireside  Headings.    Pp  382, Cl.,    $1. 

Fourteen  JTuts.'    H.  L.  H,  6cts. 

Friendly  Hints.'    H  L.  H  5  ctg. 

Geological  Evolution.'  Pp.89, 16  ctg. 

Glad  Tidings.    W  K  Tweedie.   60  cts. 

Guiding  Hand,  The.   H.L.H    $1.0O. 

Grape  Shot.  Leaflets  on  Chrigtlan  Evt- 
denceg.  II  L.  H  •  Per  pound.  6O  <•!». 

Hastings  Birthday  Book.    $1.OO. 

Heathenism  and  Spiritualism.' 
II  1.  II  Cr  8vo.,  pp.  33,  Manilla.  6  eta 

Honte,  Marriage  and  Family  Iti- 
lattons.  By  James  Inglig.  Pp.96.  76  cts 

How  the  Baby  was  Sared.     15  cts. 

Hudson's  Critical  Greek  and  En- 
glish Concordance  of  the  Jfeu> 
Testament.  By  C  F.  Hudson.  Ezra 
Abbot.aod  H  L.  Huntings.  Cr  8vu  ,  pp.  632 
(l/ondon  S  Bagslcr  A  Song,  Ld  )CI.  JJ2. 

Inndel  Testimony  Concerning  the 
Truth  of  the  Bible.'  1O  cu. 

Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  The.'  By 
H  I.  Hastings.  THIRD  MILLION.  Several 
different  edition*,  viz.  Coant  type  ("lone 
primer").  Manilla,  A  ctg.— Paper,  6 cu. .  per 
100  copies.  «200,  10UO.  »15  00  lltuttratcil 
Edition,  WILL  THE  OLD  BOOK  STAND?  same 
terms.  In  Cloth  binding.  A  SQUARE  TALK. 
illuitralrtl  60  ctg  —  ID  vanoua  languages.' 

Is  the  Bible  a  True  Bookt'     6  cu. 


Israel's  Greatest  Prophet."     5  cu 

Ifraffs  Messiah.'    H   L  H         6  cis 

lM.mtf  to  the  Path.   w.K  Tweedie   5O 

Lillfe  Christian.  The.  Year    30  cis. 

Monthly  Booklet.     Per  year.   25  cts 

Monthly  Message,  The.  Year,  25  cts 

Murdock's  Trans,  of  the  Syrtac 
JVem  Testament.  (In  press  )  $2. SO. 

Mosheim's  Institutes  of  Ecclesias- 
tical History.  Translated  by  James 
Murdoch.  D  D.  (to  be  announced). 

Mystery  Solved!  Spiritual  Mani- 
festations Explained.'  5  cts 

JVeie  Leaf,  A.    Mrs.  Seymour,      15  cis 

.Yumbrr  in  Jt'ature.'  E.  White   5  cis 

Origin  of  Life,  The.'  1O  cts, 

Pebbles  from  the  Path  of  a  Pil- 
grim. Mrs  H.L.H  Pa.  60t  ;  Cl  ,  Sl.OO. 

Primitire  Christianity  and  Mod- 
ern Spiritualism.'  H  L  H  5  cts 

Reaching  the  Masses.'  5  cts 

Readings  for  Leisure  Moments. 
H  L.  H  Cr  8vo..  Cloth,  $1.0O. 

Reign  of  Christ  on  Earth.    $1.OO 

Remarks  on  Mistakes  of  Moses. 
H  L.H      Cr  8vo  .  Paper  or  Manilla.  6  cts 

Scientific  Star  Building.       15  cis. 

Seed  Time  and  Harvest.        5O  cis. 

Separated  A'atton.'  20c  ,Cl.,35cts 

Songs  of  Pilgrimage.  A  Hymnal  for 
the  Churches  of  Christ.  By  H  L  Hastings. 
Large  8vo  ,  1,663  Hymns  with  music,  pp  644. 
Music,  Half  Leather.  »l.25,CI  .  «1.00,  Bds.. 
7oc.  Words  only.  Cloth  75c. ;  Bds.,  60  cts 

Spirit  Workings  in  Various  Lands 
and  Ages.*  By  Wm  liamsey  6  cts, 

Spiritual  Manifestations,  their 
JVature  and  Significance.*  6-cts 

Square  Talk  to  Young  Men,  A.  H. 
L.  H.  Being  the  lecture  on  INSPIRATION, 
bound  In  Cloth,  together  with  "  Coniiur- 
TIONSOFTHE  NEW  TESTAMENT."  Cr  8VO. 
.pp.  126,  Illuatrate.il,  5O  rf». 

Tales  of  Trust.  Pp.  382.  Cloth,  81. OO. 

Testimony  of  Christ  to  the  Truth 
of  the  Old  Testament,  The.'  5  cts, 

Tistinitmii  of  History.'  Qeo.  Kaw- 
Iluson.  Manilla,  36  cts  ,  Cloth.  80  cts. 

Theatre,  Thr*    Leeds.   23c. ;  Cl  ,  6O  cts. 

Trying  the  Spirits,  an  Exam,  ot 
Modern  Spiritualism,'  6  cts. 

Ttro  Hundred.  Gathered  Gems  of 
Song  and  Story.  H  L.  H  75  els. 

it///  Giant,  The.    ByJ.K.U.  15  cts. 

It'itrniHi;  Word,  A.'  5  cis 

Who  .node  the  AYriF  Test.  I*  5  cts. 

It-ill  the  Old  Book  Stand*'  Is  simply 
the  llluitratftt  6-ct  cdltlgu  of  INSPIRATION. 

Wirnr**  of  Skeptics,  The.'     6  ctg. 

Wonderful  Law,  The.'  •'!'.•  .  Cl  ,  36c. 


H.  L.  HASTINGS'  SOKIPTURAi.   TRACT   REPOSITORY. 
BOSTON,  MASS.:   47  A  Vi  COKNIIILL.  \          LONDON.  10  PATEKNOHTKU  1,'ow,  E.G. 


H.  L.  HASTINGS. 


M AKMIAI.I.  m;o.s  . 


AN  ANTI-LNFIDEL  CRUSADE. 


Perhaps  the,  nm-t  widely  circulated  argument  ;iirainst  Infidelity  ever 
written  is  a  lecture  en  The  Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  published  also  under 
the  title  Will  the  Old  Book  Stand?  which,  within  ten  years  of  its  first 
i"ite,  had  entered  upon  its  third  million,  in  over  a  dozen  different  trans- 
lations; including  German,  French,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  Swedish,  Bohe- 
mian, Japanese,  Hindee,  etc.,  and  requiring  some  forty  tons  of  paper  to  print. 

II.  L.  Hastings  of  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A.,  the  author  of  this  widelv  cir- 
culated lecture,  which  was  pronounced  by  Lord  Mmfttsljurij  ''one  of  the 
mo-t  valuable  essays  in  modern  times,"  has  Ion;:  1'eeii  engaged  in  an  Anti- 
/»//•/•/  ('nifiidc.  As  early  us  1852  lie  commenced  deliveriiiL'  addresses  upon 
Christian  evidences,  ami  a<;ain.-t  atheism,  :md  IIMS  continued  the  work  to  the 
nt  time.  In  .Ian.,  IStiii.  lie  issued  the  first  immlier  of  TIIK  (,'III;IVIIAN, 
a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  uiiM-etarian  Christian  periodical  literature,  and  in 
the  first  number  of  this  paper  he  commenced  the  issue  of  an  anti-infidel 
tract,  Infidel  Testimony  to  the  Truth  of  the  Scriptures.  In  1875  he 
Carted  TIIK  AIS.MOKV.  the  only  anti-infidel  paper  then  known  to  him,  which 
is  still  continued,  monthly,  in  connection  with  TIIK  <  'HIMSTIAX.  In  1882 
he  commenced  the  issue  .1'  tin-  AN  ii-l. \KIDKI,  LIHKAHY,  the  first  number  of 
which  was  his  lecture  on  The  Inspiration  of  the  Bible. 

Besides  the  lalior  involved  in  issuing  ./»><•  Ininilrml  t«n.<  of  anti-infidel  and 
nnsectarian  jjosp.-!  literature,  and  editing  Till:  ClIUISTIAX,  tile  LlTTI.K 
CIII;I>TIAX.  and  TIIK  AN Ti-IxKiin-;i.  Lii'.i'.AKY,  .Mr.  Hastings  has  found 
time  to  travel  annually  many  thousand  miles,  and  deliver  evangelistic  and 
anti-infidel  addresses  in  between  twenty  and  thirty  of  the  I'nited  States,  and 
in  the  British  Provinces:  and  has  visited  and  lectured  in  Knglaiid  in  1875, 
in  Kiigland  and  Scotland  in  1S81-2.  in  Kntxland  and  Ireland  in  18HH-7.  and 

lias  published  in  Great  Britain  alone,  sii 1882,  about  a  million  of  anti- 

intidel  publications,  a'_"-rrei:atin','  some  twenty  tons  weight  ot  gospel  literature, 
which  has  Keen  scattered  throughout  (ireat  Britain,  and  her  dependencies. 

Through  the  reading  of  these  publications  it  is  believed  that  many  Chris- 
tian-; have  been  strengthened  in  the  fu'th,  and  manj  skeptics  have  been 
turned  to  know  the  Lord  ami  believe  his  word.  A  curious  commentary  on 
the  eti'eet  ot  Mr.  Hastings'  efforts  put  forth  in  (Ireat  Britain  from  the'year 
nward,  in  conjunction  with  thos,-  of  other  Christian  wurK.-rs.  is  fo'und 
in  the  statistics  of  the  National  Secular  Organization,  an  Infidel  Society, 
which,  in  188'!.  claimed  to  have  about  a  hundred  branches  and  a  lar^'e  mem- 
bership,— each  of  its  members  paying  an  entrance  fee  of  four  shillings,  and 
receivini;  :i  certilicate  of  his  standing  in  that  organization. 

fear.  New  Members.  Annual  Loss.  Natmnnl  Reformer. 

1883  1,8*3  June    8,  1883,  |>.  388 

1884  1.747  I,,,-*  141  June    8.  1884,  p.  388 

1885  l.::»;7                           ••    47rt  May  31,  18X5.  n.  4nj 
1--';                     988                         •'   37!>  June20,  1886,  p.  SM 

1887  605  "    483  June    "..   ls.s7.  p.  :«5 

1888  59S  Gain  88  May  27,  1888,  p.  338 

1889  4!l:!  Loss  101          June  If,.  1889.  p.  369 

But  the  work  is  only  begun.  It  is  said  there  are  between  three  and  four 
hundred  infidel  societies  in  America.  Infidel  literature  is  scattered  through- 
out Christendom  and  in  heathen  lands.  Funds  are  '_'re.uK  needed  to  ex- 
tend this  important  work.  Address  letter*,  orders  and  donations  to 

H.L         HASTINGS'       SCRIPTURAL      TRACT       REPOSITORY. 

r.i»inv  \l  i»      17  rmixiiii.i..          I        LOM-«V-    1"  I'  \  i  >:!.%<•-  i  KI:  li»\\ , 
H.I,    IIASIIN.,-.  MAIISHAU,  r.KKS.,  A.iKXTS. 


- 

What  Is 
"THE    CHRISTIAN"? 


It  is  "excellent," — "  the  best  paper  that  comes  to  me."— C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

It  is  "  about  the  best  paper  in  the  country." — D.  L,  Moody. 

Is  is  "that  excellent  paper  that  we  all  like." — Theo.  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D. 

It  is  "  an  admirable  paper  for  general  distribution." — Kussell  Sturgis, 
Jr.,  Ex-president  Boston  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

It  is,  "  I  think,  the  best  religious  paper  in  the  country." — Arthur  T. 
Pierson,  D.  D. 

It  is  "a  very  widely  circulated  paper,  which  has  never  flinched  in  the  de- 
fense of  unpopular  truth." — Joseph  Cook. 

It  is  "full  of  evangelical  truth,  set  forth  with  glowing  earnestness.  Its 
trumpet  always  gives  a  certain  sound." — Andrew  A.  Bonar,  D.  D.,  Scotland. 

It  is  "  known  world-wide — and  ought  to  be."     D.  T.  Taylor. 

It  is  a  paper  that  "  I  rejoice  that  the  Lord  allows  you  to  publish  to  the 
pr.iise  <>f  His  name." — George  Miiller,  Bristol  Orphan  /louses,  Enylmul. 

It  is  "  of  th'o  greatest  practical  value  in  bringing  out  the  simplicity  of  the 
gospel.''— Major  D.  W.  Whittle.  "  I  find  nothing  so  helpful  to  me  in  illus- 
t rating  (Jospel  preaching  as  THE  CHRISTIAN. — Joseph  Cummings,  D.  IX, 
J' resii/i-nt  of  Northwestern  University. 

It  is  "a  large,  illustrated,  IG-page,  family,  monthly  paper,  filled  with 
true  stories,  music,  poetry,  religion  and  common  sense.  It  contains  II.  L. 
Hastings'  articles  and  his  "Notes  on  the  International  Lessons."  It  is  free 
from  sectarianism,  puffs,  politics,  pills,  and  patent  medicines.  The  young 
road  it  as  well  as  the  old.  It  is  a  safe  paper  to  have  about  the  house. 

It  is,  indeed,  declared  to  be  "very,  very  good;  worth  far  more  than  the 
price,"  ($1.00  a  year)  as  Hon.  Neal  Dow,  of  Maine,  says.  But,  if  you 
will  subscribe  for  it,  at  once,  sending  me  simply  its  regular  price,  $1 .00,  for 
a  year's  subscription,  1  will  frcvli/  </irc  you,  in  addition,  any  dollar  book  in 
tlii-  "  FAITH"  and  "HOME  ".SERIES;  published  by  me,  as  follows: 

"  I'i.i:m.i;s  FROM  THK  PATH  OK  A  I'II.CHIM,"  "TiiK.  (Irmixo  HAM>," 
"  TAUCS  OK  TitrsT,''  "  KISKNK/.KKS,"  "  TIIK  FAMILY  CIKCLE,"  "  FIKE- 
MIH-:  J{K.AI>IN<;S,"  "  KK\I>I\<.S  KOI;  LKISTUK  MOMENTS." 

Karh  of  these  volunus  is  a  regular  .Si. '25  book,  and  worth  it,  but  now 
•rulm-xl  to  £1.00.  Fine  cloth  binding;  between  .'JOO  ami  400  pages. 

Conditions.  You  must,  please,  nsk  for  the  book  when  you  semi  in  your 
subscription,  and  sny  where  you  s/tio  this  ojf'i-r.  If  you  want  the  book 
mailed  \oii  must  also  add  l(i  cents  extra,  for  postage  and  packing.  This  is 
a  special  offer,  open  nui>/  /<>  wr/c  subscribers  and  for  a  limited  time. 

H.  L.   HASTINGS,    SCRIPTURAL   TRACT    REPOSITORY 
47  &  49  Cornhill,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


THE    FAITH    SERIES. 

WRITTEN  AND   EDITED  BY  H.    L.    HASTINGS. 


Each  volume  independent  of  the  otJicrs,  t/umgh  of  uniform  size. 

These  volumes  probably  contain  a  larger  collection  of  autkoi- 
iinitdl  records  of  jirovidciitial  interposition  and  answers  t<> 
believing  prayer  than  can  be  elsewhere  found  in  the  English 
language.  A  large  majority  of  the  accounts  emlxKlied  in  these 
books  have  been  written  <:rj>rcssli/for  the  -pages  of  THK  <  'HKISTIAN, 
a  large  monthly  religious  periodical,  edited  and  pul>lished  since 
1886  by  H.  L.  Hastings,  in  l'.o>ton,  Mas-.,  I'. S. A.,  and  <jir< •  yl/r/.v 
which  have  occurnd  i<u>l<  r  the  observation  of  t/tc  I'-rifcr,  or,  in  the 
experience  of  those  with  whom  he  is  personally  acquainted.  All 
such  accounts,  for  the  correct  ness  of  winch  he.  is  personally  prepared 
to  vouch,  are  distinguished  in  the  Index  by  a  star.  [*] 

THE  GUHXEK  ~"AND;  or  Providential  Direction,  illus- 
trated by  authentic  instances  of  Relief  and  Deliverance  in  time.-  of 
trouble  and  perplexity  ;  of  Direction  through  dreams  and  mental 
impressions,  and  of  Providential  Evidence  resulting  in  the  con- 
version of  sinners.  Recorded  and  collected  by  H.  L.  HASTINGS. 
Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  pp.  382.  (3.s.  6d.)  PriVv,  $7.()Q. 

"It  would  be  well  if  Pantheists  and  other  deniers  of  Divine  Providence 
would  only  take  the  trouble  to  read  the,  authentic  instances  in  illustration  of 
this  doctrine,  {riven  by  Mr.  Hustings  in  his  beautiful  little  work  bearing  tho 
title  of  THE  GUIDING  HAND."—  Lct-ds  Mercury. 

TALES  OF  TRUST;  Instances  of  God's  Care  and  Faithful- 
ness in  providing  for  His  people;  Providential  Direction  in  the  event .; 
of  life,  and  special  Guidance  in  the  Ministry  of  the  Word  of  God. 
Recorded  and  collected  by  H.  L.  HASTINGS.  "CL  8vo.  Price,  §1.00. 

"  \Ve  would  commend  this  work,  replett  nth  testimonies  to  God's  faithful- 
ness, to  all  who  have  faith  to  believe  that  >;<>d  hears  and  answers  prayer. 
In  its  perusal  their  belief  will  be  strengthened,  and  their  hearts  lifted'  up 
in  adoring  gratitude  to  God,  who  is  the  same  now  and  for  ever."— Christian 
Depository. 

EBENEZERS  ;  or  Records  of  Prevailing  Prayer  ;  including 
Prayers  for  Rescue,  Relief  and  JIIes>inur  :  Prayers  for  the  Healing 
of  llodily  l>i>e:i-es:  pra\ers  for  the  Conversion  of  the  Impenitent. 
Written  and  collected  by  H.  L.  HASTINGS.  Cl.  8vo.  JY*Vv,  $1.00. 

PEBBLES  FROM  THE  PATH  OF  A  PILGRIM ; 

Personal  Reminiscences  of  Answers  to  Prayers,  and  Providential 
Guidance  and  Interposition,  in  connection  with  Gospel  Labour, 
Rescue  Work,  and  of  Mission  Work  among  the  Freedmen  of  the. 
Southern  States  of  America  •  fter  the  close  of  the  great  ( 'ivil  War. 
By  Mrs.  H.  L.  HASTINGS.  A  book  of  deep  and  romantic  intere.-i. 
Crown  8vo.  (In  British  Empire,  3s  6d.)  Price,  $1.00. 

H.    L.    HASTINGS'    SCRIPTURAL    TRACT    REPOSITORY. 
BOSTON,  U.S. A. :  49  CORNHILL,         I      LONDON:  10  PATERNOSTKK  Kow, 
U.  L,.  HASTINGS.  MAKSHAUL  BKOS.,  AGENTS. 


HOW    TO    HELP    RESIST    INFIDELITY. 

First—  Send  25  cents  or  more  to  H.  L.  HASTINGS,  49  Cornhill, 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A.,  for  some  specimens  of  THE  AUTI-lMFIDEL 
LIBRARY,  edited  by  him,  and  read  "them.  Then  you  can  judge 
whether  the  work  should  be  extended.  Over  thirty  numbers  of 
the  ANTI-INFIDEL  LIBRARY  are  now  issued.  Others  to  follow. 

Second  —  Make  them  known  to  otiiers. 

Third  —  Ask  your  local  bookseller  or  newsagent  to  order  some 
copies,  and  place  showbills  in  his  windows.  And,  to  induce 
him  to  do  it,  you  might  guarantee  him  against  loss,  by  ottering  to 
take,  at  cost,  whatever  copies  he  might  fail  to  sell. 

Fourth  —  Call  the  attention  of  Clergymen,  Ministers,  Colpor- 
teurs, and  City  Missionaries  to  these  publications,  as  especially 
useful  among  Sceptics,  Infidels,  Secularists,  and  persons  who  are 
undecided  or  unsettled  in  their  religious  convictions. 

Fifth  —  Give  copies  to  sceptics  and  unbelievers  ;  or,  tetter 
still,  send  them,  or  order  them  to  be  sent,  by  post,  that  they  may 
not  know  the  source  from  Avhence  they  come,  sending  one  at  a 
time  at  short  intervals,  and  praying  for  a  blessing  upon  them. 

Sixth  —  Suggest  to  persons  who  are  in  the  habit  of  purchasing 
quantities  of  tracts  for  distribution,  that  it  would  be  well  to 
include  copies  of  these  among  others. 

Seventh  —  Enclose  copies  of  these  suggestions  (furnished  freely), 
and  also  specimens  of  the  various  numbers  of  the  Avn-l.N  FIDEL 
LIBRARY  and  GRAPE  SHOT  Leaflets,  to  Christian  friends,  and  ask 
them  to  use  their  influence  in  extending  their  circulation.  And 
remember  that  every  tract  pun-luiscd  furnishes  means  to  print 
another  to  take  its  place.  Copies  may  also  be  sent  by  post  to 
Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  City  Missionaries,  Foreign  Missionaries. 
and  Christian  Workers,  many  of  whom  have  found  help  in  their 
labours  by  suggestions  contained  in  these  publications. 

Eighth  —  There  are  many  expenses  connected  with  an  enterprise 
like  this,  such  as  printing,  postage,  stationery,  &c.,  and  numerous' 
calls  for  publications  for  gratuitous  distribution.  AYe  do  not  feel 
that,  after  meeting  all  these  demands,  to  the  best  of  our  ability, 
we  are  further  called  upon  to  specially  solicit  the  aid  of  other- 
who  may  best  learn  their  duty  from  their  Muster  and  ours.  lint. 
if  friends  desire  to  help  us  in  a  work  that  is  far  beyond  our  own 
strength  and  means  to  accomplish,  their  contributions  will  lie 
thankfully  received  and  carefully  applied.  While  it  is  intended 
that  the  work  shall,  so  far  as  possible,  IK-  self-supporting,  yet  the 
Enemy  lias  had  a  long  start,  and  it  is  important  that  •iniini-<lintc 
and  i'in'r(fi'//r  efforts  be  put  forth  to  stay  tbe  progress  of  unbelief, 
and  to  publish  abroad  truths  which  have  long  been  neglected  and 
a-saileil.  Hence  extra  expenses  uliinilil  In1  provided  for  to  give 
the  work  a  fair  start  at  once. 

<Vi.  .-ix./.ir  iliiiinHiniK,  ,fc.,  thniild  be  mini:  jMiimlli:  In  II   L.  Hatting*,  anil  tent  to  either  of 
tneAaaret»e»beUnD,a»mo»t  convenient.    *\>-I-I<HIII  m<  nts  for  lectures  bv  Mr.  Ilanliny8  canbemadi. 

H.    L.    HASTINGS'    SCRI^TU^AL    TRACT    REPOSITORY. 

BOSTON,  U.S.A.:  40  COUNHIM,,        I      LONDON:  10  PATKBNOSTBB  Row, 
H.  I,.  HASTINGS.  MA11SHALLL  UU08.,  AOKNTS. 


H.  L.  HASTINGS' 

BOSTON  BIBLE 
HOUSE, 

47  &  49   CORNHILL,  BOSTON 
MASS. 

For  about  forty  years  H.  L.  Hastings  has  been 
eiigau'ed  in  import  in-.',  buying,  selling,  and  dis- 
tributing Bibles.  In  connection  with  the  pub- 
lication of  Anti-Infidel  and  Gospel  literature  he  has  established  the  BOSTON 
BIBLE  HOUSE,  at  which,  it  is  probable,  there  may  be  found  the  g; 
variety  of  choice  Bibles  in  America,  if  not  in  the  world,  and  comprising 
Bibles  of  various  sizes,  prices,  styles  and  editions.  Pulpit  Bibles,  Family 
Bibles,  Pictorial  Bibles,  Reference  Bibles,  Teachers'  Bibles,  Bagsters'  Bibles, 
Oxford  Biblps,  Cambridge  Bibles,  Collins'  Bibles,  Kyrt-  ,fc  Spottiswoode's 
Bibles,  Bible  Society  Bibles,  Bibles  in  different  languages,  and  Bibles  and 
iients  at  priee.s  from  25  cents  to  $25.00,  weighing  from  one  ounce  to 
fifteen  or  twenty  pounds.  Any  Bibles  at  reduced  prices.  ,  , 

DO  YOU  WANT  the  finest  Teachers'  Bible  published,  without  money 
outlay?  Youcanhave  it  by  saying  when-  you  saw  this  offer,  and  by  send- 
ing in  only  three  times  the  publishers'  price  for  the  Bible,  in  new  sub- 
scriptions to  1 1 .  L.  Hastings'  large,  HJ-page,  illustrated,  family,  monthly 
paper,  Tin-:  < .'IIKISTI AN,  $1.00  a  year,  or  to  the  LITTLK  CIIIUSTIAN,  a 
beautiful  semi-monthly  paper  for  children,  at  30  Cts.  a  year.  Postage  free. 
Your  choice  of  a  hundred  styles  of  type,  paper,  or  binding.  Send  for 
catalogue  and  specimen-;  of  Tu  i:  <  'n  i;i>  n  AN  and  LITTLE  CIIIUSTIAN  free. 

DO  YOU  WANT  A  splendid  $15. 00  Family  Bible,  containing  thousands 
of  engravings,  costly  steel  plates,  tine  ehronio  lithographs,  Bible  Dictionary, 
comple'e  ( 'onco  -dance,  in  fact,  a  whole  library  of  valuable  Bible  Helps,  and 

DO  YOU  WANT  this  Bible  without  paying  a  dollar  for  it  1  II.  L. 
Ha-tiir_'-<  will  give  it  to  you,  freely,  if  you  get  only  its  price.  $15.00,  in  lieu- 
subscriptions  to  either  of  hi<  papers,  TIIK  CIIIMSTIAX,  at  $1.00  a  vear,  or 
the  LITTI.K  CIIKISTIAN,  30  CtS.  a  year,  and  </.<£.  «t  tlie  time,  for  the  Bible. 
Kvpressed  at  receiver's  expense,  or  ma  i  led  for  S 1 .25  extrainU.  S.  or  Canada. 

le.ise  send  for  specimens  of  the  papers  free,  and  fi.r  illustrated  descriptions 
of  the  Bible  alluded  to  in  this  extraordinarily  liberal  oH'er.  Also  this  si.'i.oo 
Bible  will  be  given  to  anv  o:ie  buying  or  selling  only  $15.00  worth  of  any 
numbers  of  the  ANTI-!XI  II»KI.  I  T.IJAKY  at  retail  prices.  See  Li>t. 

H.L.HASTINGS1     SCRIPTURAL     TRACT     REPOSITORY. 

BOSTON,  r.  s.  A.:  47  CUKNHII.L,       I       LONIMJN:   10  PATKKNM-I  i  \-  KI-W. 
H.  L.  HASTIN<;>.  MARSHALL  «H<)S.,  A-.- 


OVER 

1,500,000 

COPIES 

of  these  Bibles 
HAVE  BEEN  SOLD. 


THE  ORIGINAL, 
THE  BEST, 

THE   MOST 
COMPLETE, 


The  "AID 
by  le 


*"  in  this  Bible  make  300  pages  of  closely  printed  matter  prepared 
jading  specialists  in  each  department  of  Biblical  study,  and 
give  the  latest  results  of  the  best  scholarship. 

This  Bible  has  been  IMITATED  but  not  EQUALED. 

KIGIIT  DISTINCT  EDITIONS,  printed  on  "India"  or  Thin  White  ftag- 
niade  paper. 

I'rici-s  front  •*/.-•>  to  $1'J.     Si' nil  for  detailed  and  tlatcriplire  1'rice-List. 

WHAT    IS    SAID    OF    THIS    BIBLE. 

THE  STANDARD,  Chicago.— "A  mass  of  information  forming  a  library 
in  itself.  .  .  .  With  every  feature  a  teacher  needs  for  practical  use." 

THE  I$APTIST.,i-"Qmte  a  wonderful  coin])endiuin  of  Biblical  information. 
No  Simday-schooKteacher  should  lie  without  it." 

I.  W.  WALTON  of  Hie  T.  M.  C.  A.'s  of  Ohio.— "I  believe  that  for  the  use 
of  Sunday-school  teachers  and  active  members  of  the  Y.  M.C.  A.  they  are 
not  only  unexcelled,  .  .  .  but  have  no  equals.  .  .  .  A  library  of' rare, 
choice  and  practical  information  which  no  Bible  student  should  miss." 

The  Venerable  Archdeacon  FARRAR,  in  speaking  of  it  says:  "The  Hook, 
as  now  completed,  presents  the  best  and  most  recent  results  of  Biblical 
research  ill  the  smallest  possible  compass.  .  .  .  A  Bible  rich  in  informa- 
t ion,  which  could  only  be  gathered  from  a  multitude  of  learned  and  expen- 


the 


she    books,    and    frr 
something  to  learn." 

Tin-  Nov.  Dr.  EDEKSI1KI3I  :   "It  is  eertainU 
useful  which  has  hit  lierto  appeared." 

The  lifv.  JOSEPH   PAKKKK,  D.I).:  "I  hav< 

j'leat  caie.  It  is  (|itiie  as  valuable  for  preachers  a n< I  hearers  as  for  learhers 
and  seliolars.  It  is  almost  a  library  in  itself,  coiitaiiung  e\erytliing  that  is 
immediately  needed  for  the  clneidalion  of  the  sacred  text.  I  can  not 
imagine  how  this  ISilile  can  he  improved  in  any  important  particular." 

The  Laic   Archbishop    TIIEM'II  :   "  Marvi   ously   full   of   interesting  and 
accurate  information." 

The  Kcv.  C.  II.  SPUIMJEON:   "  It  is  a  singularly  useful  edition." 

MAY  BE  OBTAINED  THROUGH  ANY  BOOKSELLER. 

E.  &  J.  B,  YOUNG  &  CO.,  COOPER  UNION,  FOURTH  AYE.,  NEW  YORK. 

l|l£==»l_(, .0   «•— "^ 


BAGSTKRS' 

COMPREHENSIVE 

TEACHERS'  BIBLE, 

With  New  Helps,  New  Concordance,  Indexed  Atlas,  and 
the  Complete  "Bagster  Bible." 


"WHAT  EDITION  OF  THE  BIBLE  SHALL  I  BUY?" 

••.Messr<.  I1.;. Asters liave  now  issued  a  Cnmi>r<-li<'H- 

I'l'in-lii-rn'  l>Hil<'  which  contains  some  three  or 

four  hunilriMl  pa^es  of  additional  Jlc//>s  to  Jiilili- 

Stint i/,  including  a  new  and  beautiful  Concordance. 

with  twenty  tlionsand  references,  also  containing 

an  account  of  all  the  books  in  the  Hiblc,  and  of  its 

raiihy,  topography,  antiquities,   natural   hi-- 

tory,  etc.,  with  a  dozen  or  fifteen  maps  and  ihe  well 

known  helps  which  have  pre\  ioiisly  In  en  embodied 
in  the  other  editions  of  Hauler's  J'.ililcs. 

Though  tlio  hook  now  contains  more-  than  a 
thousand  pajjvs,  yet  it.  is  quite  portable,  bein;:  more 
shapely  and  convenient  than  most  other  Bible-  of 
this  description,  while*  the.  paper  is  no!  too  thin  for 
distinctness.  Those  who  are  contemplating  pur- 
chasing new  r.ibles  are  iinilcd  to  examine  the 
Jliii/xft'i-'f:  Cf>mi>rehensire  Teui-lu-m'  Rihle  and  see 
it  this  is  not.  the  h<x>k  for  which  they  arelookinu." 

11.  i..  IIASTIM;S. 

"There  has  been  placed  upon  our  desk  a  copy  of  '  The  Comprehensive 
Tea'-hers'  I'.ible.'  recently  issued  by  S.  BagSter  and  Sons,  Limited,  London. 
.  .  .  \Ve  ha\e  «ri\en  tlie  book  a  careful  examination,  ami  are  prepared 
to  piv«-  our  opinion  as  to  its  intrinsic  and  relative  merits. 

If  ;i  copy  of  ih i<  I'.ible  could  lie  placed  in  the  hands  of  all  the  Sunday 
School  Teachers  in  the  Church,  and  then  if  they  could  be  induced  to  read 
thoagtatfnllY these  'Ih'ips,1  it  would  prove  anmitoid  Messing  to  millions, 
for  every  r-diolar  would  reap  a  measure  of  the  benefit."-  t-'roi/i  tin  eilit»ri<il 
in  tin  " Buffalo  ('hriadini  .lilrodite"  6y  REV.  8.  McOKKALD,  D. D. 


SUPPLIED    BY    ALL    LEADING    BOOKSELLERS. 

All  Si:i'n  inul  I'rii-<:-<  frnm   $l..~,f>. 

JAMES  POTT  &  Co.,  SOLE  AGENTS,  NEW  YORK. 


GENUINE  OXFORD  TEACHERS  BIBLES 

COPYRIGHT      1891    BY     G.HOUSTON. 


THE 


"GENUINE 
OXFORD" 


A  WHOLE   LIBRARY   OF   SCRIPTURAL    KNOWLEDGE   IN    A  SMALL   COMPAS", 
ADAPTED   FOR   ALL  CLASoES. 

Possession  of  this  will  obviate  the  necessity  of  a  number  of  hooks, 
•while  it  will  concentrate  the  mind  of  the  Student  on  his  work. 

America  and  Great  Britain's  Eminent  Scholars  and  Divines  pronounce  it 

THE  BEST  AND  MOST  COMPLETE  BIBLE  PUBLISHED. 

The  Right  Hon.  WM.  E.  GLADSTONE  says:  "Those  admirable  I'.ibles 
must  tend  to  extend  the  fame  even  of  the  Oxford  Tress." 

Rev.  T.  DeWITT  TALMAGE,  D.  D.,  Octnber,  ISOf):  "Tmriii"  mv 
recent  journeying  ifl  Palestine.  I  found  the  'Oxford'  Teachers' Bible  help- 
ful, accurate  and  indispensable." 

Bishop  JOHN  H.  VINCENT  of  the  M.  E,  Church:  "All  thinps  taken 
into  consideration,  ir  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  editions  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  1  have  ever  seen.  I  wish  we  could  place  a  copy  in  the  hands  of 
every  Sunday  School  Superintendent  and  Teacher  in  America." 

Rev.  C.  H.  SPURGEON:  "The  very  best.  I  have  carefully-examined 
the  volume,  and  can  unreservedly  re-commend  it." 

"'GET  THE  BEST.'  The 'Oxford' is  easily  the  best,  therefore  ret  the 
'Oxford.'  This  is  Ionic,  and  Hi  is  is  our  adviee  lo  all  \s  ho  are  seeking  the 
1681  Bible  for' their  own  use  or  as  a  -iift  to  a  friend.  .  .  .  It  is  a  u  hole 
library  of  Scriptural  knouled^e  in  a  small  compass."  'I'll,'  ('liri.-iliini 
H'itiK-sx.  /••<'/,.  /:,  I  suit. 

'•Compiled  by  the  best  scholarship  of  the  Jge."      Mttlnxtial  l!<;;,r<lfr. 

OVER  100  STYLES  FROM  $1,25  TO  $20.00, 

Be  Sure  you  get  the  Genuine  Edition  with  the  following  Imprint  on 
the  Title  Page : 

OXFORD: 

i-itlNTKii  AT  TIN:  i  M\M:SHY  IM.-I>S. 

IONUON  !    H6NRY  FROWDE, 
OXFORD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS    WACEHOUSE,  AMEN    CORNER. 


4«o  ••• 


FOR    SALE    BY    ALL    BOOKSELLERS. 

THOMAS     NELSON    &    SONS,     "OXFORD"    BIBLE    WAREHOUSE, 
33  East  iyth  Street,  Union  Square,  New  York. 


